A Strong and Steady Current

Another playoff game, another classic. Despite a slow start, filled with missed shots, missed assignments, and flat out ugliness all of which spurred a text message from Andrew Sherman saying "ive seen better shooting at a 4th grade girls basketball game." Still, the game was extremely competitive throughout, just when one team seized control, the other clawed its way back in. The Lamar Odom-Rashard Lewis match up was truely great to watch. The two went back and forth, continuing to attack each other on the offensive end, almost taking offense to the fact that the other had the audacity to score on him. Odom played great again for LA, hitting some huge free throws at the end and at the start of the fourth quarter, was scoring at will. On the other hand, Lewis carried Orlando for most of tonight's game and got into a nice groove in the second quarter that carried into the fourth quarter. Orlando tried some new things in Game 2, but the most notable was definetly, Rafer Alston's loss of playing time to JJ Redick and not Jameer Nelson. Redick played a great deal of minutes tonight, but played the second half at the point, where he is not undersized and can hold his own defensively against an aging Derek Fisher. Redick's presence gave Orlando another shooter with Alston struggling to hit and also kept Derek Fisher at home instead of doubling on Dwight Howard. Redick was also pretty effective out there, Van Gundy ran a few plays for him in overtime and in the fourth quarter and he hit a huge three to tie the game late in the fourth quarter. His play today may force Van Gundy to bench Alston in favor of Nelson and use Redick as the back up point guard. LA has done a great job forcing Howard to pass the ball to the struggling Magic shooters and fouling him all while holding him to one dunk in the first two games. The Magic on the other hand have not been as successful guarding Bryant. Even on a subpar night for Bryant's standard, he still left a positive mark on the game. Bryant, seemingly made the right play every time down and despite his six turnovers he was extremely efficent, scoring 29 points on 10 of 22 shooting from the field and dishing out eight assists. Furthermore, Courtney Lee has been completely overmatched guarding Bryant, and hasn't been a force offensively either. Whenever he's on the court the Lakers attack him, I'm expecting a reduce role from him in the rest of the series. Lastly, Ariza and Fisher have been huge for LA, hitting open shots in addition to making hustle plays and playing great defense. For much of the post season, the Lakers have been outhustled, and have lacked shooters. In the Finals, the Lakers have been focused and have exploited the Magic's inexperience. This year's Lakers look like last year's Celtics, willing to do anything to win, while Orlando has not been able to match LA's intensity (I've said this soo many times, but its true) and do not seem prepared. Still, Games 3-5 are in Orlando, and the home team always has the advantage. Obviously Game 3 is a must win for Orlando, but how will the Lakers react with a chance to basically end the series? Will the Laker team from Houston show up, or will these new Lakers who seem oh so hungry come to crash the party?