Lakers Dodge One; Orlando’s Magic Backfiring on Them

June 8, 2009

By Isis Roberts

HGSTAR1NEWS Staff

Orlando could’ve made the game-winning shot. They would’ve gone back home happy. The series should’ve been tied one-one.

Instead, the Magic can only wish the words could’ve, would’ve, should’ve actually made a difference in life, let alone the NBA Finals.

With a total opposite ending than Game One of the series, the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Orlando Magic 101 to 96 in a nail biting, overtime thriller in Game Two.

With nine and one half seconds to go in the fourth quarter, the Lakers had what seemed to be the last shot, and an opportunity to win. Kobe Bryant drove to the basket and went up on four Magic defenders for the winning shot. Hedo Turkoglu, however, came from behind and blocked Bryant’s shot, corralled the rebound, and immediately called time out with 0.6 seconds left of the clock.

In the last play of regulation, the Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy drew up an outstanding inbounds play in which Turkoglu threw an alley-oop to Courtney Lee.

The play was great. The pass was great. But the shot by Lee, not great at all.

“He missed it,” said Van Gundy. “I don’t know what else to say.

“Hedo made a great pass, and we missed it.”

In overtime, everything went the Lakers’ way. L.A. outscored Orlando 13 to 8 and went on to take Game Two of The Finals.

Overall, the score stayed relatively close during the game. There were 23 lead changes and 21 ties.

For the Lakers, Kobe continued to do work. In 48 minutes played, he racked up 29 points and eight assists. Pau Gasol had a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

The candy-man, Lamar Odom, also had a fantastic game off the bench with 19 points and eight rebounds.

Rashard Lewis played great for the Magic with 34 points, seven assists and 11 rebounds. Hedo Turkoglu also added 22 points for Orlando.

The Lakers’ defensive strategy seemed to be working on Dwight Howard. Orlando’s Superman was held to 17 points and he alone committed seven turnovers.

With a heart-breaking Magic loss like this, it seems easy to point the finger at rookie Courtney Lee. You expect rookies to make mistakes, right? Unfortunately for Lee, his mistake probably deflated Orlando’s only chance at having a shot to win the series.

"You sit and groan about it just for that moment, but you still have another five minutes to go out there and play,” said Lee. “We didn't lose the game just because I missed the layup."

Lee messed up, but it’s impossible to just ignore the other factors that contributed to Orlando’s loss. The Magic had 20 turnovers that led to 28 points for the Lakers. Three crucial turnovers came in overtime.

“Turnovers was the reason we lost the game tonight,” said Lewis. “If you turn the ball over against a good team like the Lakers, they’re going to take advantage of it.”

History tells us the chances are slim that Orlando has enough magic to come back down two games. There have only been three teams in NBA history that have come back from 0-2 in The Finals.

“We’ve just got to go home and take care of business,” said Howard. “The Lakers did a good job of protecting their home, and now it’s our turn to do the same thing.”

Look for Bryant to kick it up in game three. He’s far from happy with the 2-0 lead.

“What’s there to be happy about?” asked Bryant. “Is the job finished? I don’t think so.”

Game Three of The Finals will take place on Tuesday at 9:00 PM Eastern time.