LAKERS DESTROY MAGIC IN GAME 1 OF NBA FINALS

Before the NBA Finals began, Orlando Magic superstar Dwight Howard was a highly visible media presence frequently referring to himself as ‘Superman’ and suggesting that a title victory for his team was divinely preordained.  On Thursday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers provided a sobering reality check as they dominated every phase of game one en route to a punishing 100-75 victory. 

The Lakers easily covered as a -6 point home favorite, while the 175 points scored went well UNDER the posted total of 205’.  It was Los Angeles’ first cover in their past four home matchups with the Magic, while the total continued the overall form of the series where 3 of the last 4 and 9 of the last 12 games at the Staples Center have gone UNDER.  The Lakers have now covered three straight and four of five overall, while the Magic lost against the spread for only the second time in their past nine games. 

Kobe Bryant led all scorers with an MVP-like performance including 40 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 blocked shots.  He also justified his reputation as arguably the best one on one defender since Michael Jordan, providing the catalyst for a suffocating Lakers’ team defense that held the Magic to a pitiful 29.9% shooting from the field.  Pau Gasol added 16 points, while Lamar Odom continued his exemplary play off the bench posting a ‘double/double’ with 11 points and 14 rebounds.  Mickael Pietrus led the Magic with 14 points, Hedo Turkoglu added 13 and Dwight Howard added 12 along with 15 rebounds.  Despite the ‘double/double’ he was badly outplayed by all of the Lakers’ frontcourt personnel. 

Afterwards, Kobe Bryant’s comments on his team’s overwhelming performance were short and sweet:

"I just want it so bad, that's all. I just want it really bad."

In fact, Kobe stressed the importance of the Lakers forgetting their game 1 blowout win as he gave notice that the Magic were still a dangerous adversary:

"This is a resilient team. They've been through a lot of adverse situations before. This is nothing new to them. We've got to forget about this and move on."

Over in the visiting dressing room, Dwight Howard had little explanation for his team’s showing:

"We've never had a shooting night this bad. We've just got to come out and play a lot harder than we did tonight."

Game two will be back at The Staples Center on Sunday with the Lakers opening a -6’ home favorite with the total revised downward to 202’.  The series will shift to Orlando for game three on Tuesday.  While the series is far from over, historical precedent is strongly in favor of the Los Angeles Lakers—the team that has won the first game of the NBA finals has gone on to claim the championship 80.4% of the time (37-9).  Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson’s situational record is even more impressive:  he’s a perfect 43-0 in postseason series when his team wins game one.