LAKERS BEAT MAGIC IN OT FOR 3-1 SERIES LEAD

The Los Angeles Lakers overcame a twelve point halftime deficit to the Orlando Magic to force overtime, and then outscored their opponent 12-4 in the extra period for a 99-91 game four victory on Thursday night.  The win gave the Lakers a 3-1 lead in the best of seven series and put them on the brink of winning the NBA championship.  Game five under the NBA’s 2-3-2 finals format will be back at Orlando’s Amway Arena on Sunday night with the final two games, if necessary, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Bettors who took the Lakers as +2 road underdogs cashed their tickets as Los Angeles continued their late season ATS uptick winning their sixth ATS victory in eight games.  The Magic, meanwhile, failed to cover for the fourth time in six games after running off seven straight pointspread covers during the Boston and Cleveland series.  Despite the overtime period, the combined 190 points went well UNDER the 201’ total and ended a run of 4 straight OVERs in head to head meetings at Orlando. 

Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 32 points, adding 7 rebounds and 8 assists for a solid all around game.  Pau Gasol posted a ‘double/double’ with 16 points and 10 boards, while Trevor Ariza just fell short of accomplishing the same feat with 16 points and 9 rebounds.  Derek Fisher was the only other Laker to score in double figures with 12 points, though he may have been the hero of the game.  Fisher hit a 3 pointer with 4.6 seconds left in regulation to force overtime, and hit a ‘dagger’ from beyond the arc late in the extra session to secure the win. 

Orlando, meanwhile, fell well short of their NBA Finals record 65% shooting in game four as they were held to a mere 41.9% by a tenacious Laker defense.  Hedo Turkoglu led the team with 25 points, while self proclaimed ‘Superman’ Dwight Howard posted a ‘double/double’ with 16 points, 21 rebounds and added 9 blocked shots.  Mickael Pietrus scored 15 off the bench and Rafer Alston contributed 11 to round out the Magic double digit scoring.

Lakers’ guard Derek Fisher, who famously beat San Antonio on a three point shot with .4 seconds remaining in 2004, said the may be the most memorable performance of his career:

"It ranks right up there at the top. You know, even greater than 0.4 because I feel like we're as close as possible to what our end goal is."

Speaking specifically of his 3 pointer late in overtime:

"I just sensed that was the dagger. That was the one that would put us in a position to close out the game even though the game wasn't over."

Even Kobe Bryant, who had been all business after the previous games in the series, took time out to give Fisher his due credit for the win:

"He's been there before. He has been there and done that. He just has supreme confidence and I think those shots at the end of the game are actually easier for him than the other ones."

Orlando has been opened as a -3 favorite in game five, with the total again adjusted downward to 198’.  From a statistical standpoint, a Magic comeback in the series is almost unfathomable—in NBA Finals history teams that win the first two games at home and split the next two on the road to go up 3-1 have a 25-0 record in the series.  Factoring in all NBA playoff series, it doesn’t get much better with the leading team holding a 119-1 record.  That’s a winning percentage of 99.2% meaning that the Magic’s title hopes are down to ‘slim’ and ‘none’.