That's like going from cotton candy to a pillow.
Magic in 6.
That's like going from cotton candy to a pillow.
Magic in 6.
Lakers-Magic Finals> Lakers-Cavs Finals
^That sig is hilarious.
I elect redzero's sig for the funniest sig known to mankind. Been cracking me up all night.
I found it on another website. I don't know who did the photoshopin'.
Tough call...usually opposing teams have a huge advantage over the Lakers at the PG position and are able to exploit that. But with Jameer out. and Alston as their starter, this is unlikely.
Rafer wasn't great on the road against the Cavs, but Fisher has looked worse each series. Jameer would've been a tougher guard because he's a better scorer, but hopefully Alston can continually get to the rim against the Lakers or penetrate enough to create opportunities for Dwight and the other bigs....Chauncey didn't have a problem driving when he decided to stop shooting jumpers and he doesn't have blazing speed.
ANY person in the world can get by Fisher at this point. He is absolutely horrible at this point of his career, especially on D. Yet he still plays 30 mins. a game. Shannon Brown should be starting by now but PJ will never bench Fisher cause he's a "vet" and a co captain, LAME!
As a basketball fan I agree. Wasn't Brown a throw in in that deal with the Bobcats? I think the kid has proven he deserves to at least compete with Farmar for quality minutes....playing Fisher as much as they do is brutal to watch.
He did come over in that trade but ever since he started getting PT he has proved to be the Lakers best option at the point. Fisher is way too old and Farmar just sucks this year. I think Shannon got more minutes then Farmar in both the first two rounds this year but for some reason got less minutes this last series. The only thing Fisher is good for is spot up shooting and since about the end of March he has been absolutely horrible shooting wise, so I really don't know why he continues to get time. But we did make it back to the finals somehow with him getting minutes so w/e.
It's weird because Fisher used to be so much better defensively at staying in front of guys and drawing charges....it was annoying as when he did it to the Spurs, but he was pretty good at it. I know he complained earlier in the season about having to play so many minutes with Farmar being out. You think he could have worn down a bit or has his suckage reached the point of no return?
How important is home court advantage in this series? Is it more important in this series than it was in last year's Finals? This is Kobe's chance. It's his chance to shut up all of his critics and haters. If he and the Lakers beat the Magic and win the Finals, he can finally say that he won a championship without Shaq. If he doesn't win the championship this year, he probably won't ever win one. I think this Finals will define Kobe's place in history and his legacy.
Both teams have proven they can overcome strong HCA's and both teams have lost some pretty winnable games at home.
Fischer's out there because he defers to Kobe at all times, and you can count on him for a playoff magic at some point. To his credit, he's probably one of the best players I've ever seen for stepping up in the playoffs and playing way above his skill/talent level. He's almost Horry-like in that regard.
Rooting for the Magic but I'm sure the Fakers will win in 6. Kobe will be putting on free throw clinic while Howard sits with 6 fouls for most of the games.
I think it all comes down to fouls on Howard. LA has a lot of bigs to throw at him to try to get him in foul trouble. You get early fouls on Howard and suddenly the Magic become softer in the middle, can't rebound as well, and have no inside scoring option (maybe lewis can help but only on mismatches). They can squeek by against other teams occasionaly, but not against LA. I predict Odom, Gasol, Walton, and Bynum will be attacking him relentlessly forcing him to either back down or get a foul.
The help defense is going to have to execute flawlessly for Orlando to keep Howard in the game.
Also how the refs blow the whistles will effect the game. I wonder if LA is going to get Cleveland rigged officiating? (touch fouls, fantom fouls on dhow and lewis)
At least we will be spared the lovefest that would have been Kobe vs LeBron. Still was hoping for Denver but you can't have everything.
If Jameer Nelson were playing i would say Magic in 6.
No Jameer, I say Lakers in 6.
La cruising by another injured opponent?
Some of you guys really overrate home court advantage. Home floor means more to younger/fast-paced/inexperienced/all of the above kind of teams such as Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, or the Denver Nuggets. Orlando, from what I've seen, play like a more experienced team and they don't let where their playing sway them from playing their best possible game.
That's a good reason why Spurs won 4 les. The experience and fundamental kinda of play (opposite of the young gun, fast-paced play) made them play consistently no matter which floor they were on.
LA has a lot of young players and I think some lebron like calls will go LA's way at home.
They have young players but they play more like an experienced team (good playoff experienced).
Also, there would be no reason to give special calls. It would make sense to give special calls in order to make a certain team reach the finals so the final series would have a lot of viewers watching. However, there is no round after the finals.
It's different when the fan favorite team doesn't reach the finals than when a fan favorite team loses the finals. If a fan favorite team doesn't reach the finals, the viewer base for the finals will drop. However, if the fan favorite team loses the finals, what do you think will happen? They'll stop watching the NBA just because their favorite team didn't win the final series? Highly unlikely.
There should be no incentive to "rig the games" in this final series.
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