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Friday, June 05, 2009
By Roz Juarbe

Game 1 of the NBA Finals was ugly. Men against boys, a young team with big eyes against a tall and talented team that was in the NBA Finals a year ago (and lost as a favorite). That is the impression after the first game and Orlando has a lot of work to do to prove otherwise.

Orlando had a +15 edge in points from three-point land (a solid 34.8%), which is their game, and even led 38-33 in the second quarter. But they missed free throws (8, 71%), shot 29.9% from the field and got killed on the glass, 55-41. More bad news is that the Lakers shot a respectable 46% (though not lights out) and were just 3-of-9 from long range....and still won by 25. L.A. pushed the margin to 26 at 82-56 near the end of the third quarter as Kobe recorded 18 in the period.

Bryant scored 12 points in the second quarter, including the last basket of the period, to push the Lakers' lead to 53-43 at halftime. The Magic have a few days to try to figure out how to deal with match-up issues, chiefly L.A.'s interior defense, rebounding and, of course, Kobe. Bryant made 16-of-34 shots and added eight rebounds and eight assists.

Offensively, the three stars of the Magic, Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu, combined to hit just 6-of-27 shots, including Howard going just 1-of-6 from the floor. Forget about Jameer Nelson and his impact on the series. This series is going to be decided by two things: 1) The big frontcourts; and 2) whether Orlando has anyone in the backcourt to harrass Kobe. After Game 1, the answers are "Lakers" and "No one." LA dominated up front and Kobe did whatever he wanted on offense. Those are bad signs for the young Magic.

When asked if the Magic might be intimidated by all the hoopla, General Manager Otis Smith said, "Stage fright? Us?" One the one hand, this team was great on the road all season and won as underdogs against Boston and Cleveland. On the other hand, they may have run up against a bigger and better team. The Magic have been playing the disrespect card all postseason.

"Our effort tonight, it just wasn't there," Dwight Howard said. "Nobody's effort was there. We didn't go for any loose balls, we just weren't fighting. That's not Magic basketball." It is time for the players and coaches to stop talking and get to work, because they did more talking than work in Game 1.