411 on Game 1

As the world prepared for the heavily anticipated best of seven series between Kobe & LeBron, the Orlando Magic slowly creaped past the Celtics and continued their winning ways to send LeBron home early. The media was in awe. It was SUPPOSED to be a battle of the two most dominant players in the NBA. Orlando had different ideas.

Thursday night came and the 2009 NBA Finals were underway. The big question everyone asked was "Can Kobe win a ring without Shaq? Or will the underdog Magic steal yet another series to earn their first championship in franchise history?" The Orlando Magic played great basketball to keep up with the LA Lakers all through the first half. This was going to be quite a series.

I'm not sure what Phil Jackson said to his Lakers at halftime, but it obviously fired up Kobe. At the start of the 3rd, Kobe came out with a bang. No member of the Magic could defend the deadly-accurate Kobe Bryant. Kobe ended the quarter with 17 points, en route to a 40 point game.

The Magic not only couldn't contain Kobe, but had problems of their own. Between the mindless turnovers and forced passes, the Magic gave the Lakers way more scoring chances than they worked for. Mickael Pietrus was the LEADING Magic scorer with 14 points. When that happens, the end result usually isn't pretty.

For the Magic, it wasn't. When the final buzzer went off all the Magic could do was look at the heckling fans and accept their 100-75 defeat. Which was the bigger Game 1 blowout since the late 80's. The Magic need a different game plan in Game 2, or they will be finding themselves in an 0-2 hole... heading back to LA.

I would call this a must win for the Magic. Get Dwight Howard the ball in the post, and get role players like Turkoglu and "Skip to My Lou" going. Stan van Gundy needs to find a way to keep the ball out of the hands on Kobe Bryant. How you do that is anyone's guess.

I feel that the Los Angeles Lakers have a huge advantage in this series. With solid contributers like Fisher, Ariza, and Gasol helping Odom and Kobe do all the dirty work, I feel that the Laker's will prevail in the end. The Orlando Magic aren't going to just roll over though, when they execute their "jump shot" game approach (by not forcing shots, making the extra pass, and finding the open man) they can be dominant. But is Kobe too much?

My Prediction: Lakers in 5 Games. Simply due to the fact that Kobe has a better supporting cast than Dwight Howard. Although Howard is the most athletic "big man" in the NBA, he can't do it all. His teammates need to pick it up play 48 minutes of solid defense. If not, Kobe will earn his 4th championship ring.

FOR MORE ON THE 2009 NBA FINALS: http://www.nba.com/finals2009/