Discuss the Magic vs Lakers matchup

[indiefan23]

Everyone knows the Odom's, Kobe's, Dwight's, Gasol's, Hedo's, Rashard's of the world will step up, but who will be your X-factor?

Candidates:

Bynum
Pietrus
Ariza
Alston
Gortat
Fisher
Shannon B
Jordan Farmar
Luke Walton
Courtney Lee
??????

Odom/Lewis. They are the match up problems and the series will ride with them.

[OldSchoolBBall]

The only big question in my mind is whether the Magic's shooters (Lewis/Turk/Pietrus/Alston) show up like they did throughout the rest of the playoffs. If they do, the Magic have a decent shot. If they pull a disappearing act (one that has nothing to do with LA's defense; e.g., if all of a sudden they can't hit open 3's), it's over in 5. With good play from their shooters, they can push it to 6, maybe 7 (only a 5-10% chance of a game 7 imo).

[UCLA - Lakers]

9/10 went with LA... & it took the Magic to 7 game series and a 6 game series. Deja Vu! At least we got Tim Legler's vote of confidence.

[UCLA - Lakers]

Jameer Nelson

He's not playing, and I don't know why people think he might. He was interviewed last night and he said that HOPEFULLY he could make it back by preseason.

[Lakers_Kobe_Fan]

I think Pietris will be the unsung hero in this series and will give Kobe more trouble than most are realizing. Without a doubt Lee/Pietris will gaurd Kobe much better than Denver did. Pietris did a good job of wearing Down Lebron and making him work but Kobe is more perimiter oriented and Pietris size and athletisism will cause Kobe Problems even more than Lebron cause he can't use his own size and strength like Lebron did.

watch some fcuking games before making comments like this....

[bruceblitz]

I'm going with the underdog. The biggest problem with the Lakers defense is defending the pick-n-roll and the Magic are great at using screens to get good looks at 3 pointers. Look for the Magic to set up great looks in the corner for 3 as well. I personally think the Lakers have more talent top-to-bottom but the Magic are a better defensive unit and they have better pure shooters. I predict that Bynum will have problems staying out of foul trouble the entire series so it will come down to Odom and Gasol in the frontcourt. Who's gonna defend Rashard's high release? Who's gonna stop Dwight Howard? Who's gonna stop Kobe Bryant? All questions to ponder but when you look at the team aspect I think the Magic have the edge. Coaching edge and experience goes to Phil Jackson, of course. That being said I have the Lakers squeaking out a game 1 victory, Magic steal game 2, from that point on Magic dominate the series winning it in 6. What's your take?

[The Magic Man]

I'm going with the underdog. The biggest problem with the Lakers defense is defending the pick-n-roll. I personally think the Lakers have more talent top-to-bottom but the Magic are a better defensive unit and they have better pure shooters. I predict that Bynum will have problems staying out of foul trouble the entire series so it will come down to Odom and Gasol in the frontcourt. Who's gonna defend Rashard's high release? Who's gonna stop Dwight Howard? Who's gonna stop Kobe Bryant? All questions to ponder but when you look at the team aspect I think the Magic have the edge. Coaching edge and experience goes to Phil Jackson, of course. That being said I have the Lakers squeaking out a game 1 victory, Magic steal game 2, from that point on Magic dominate the series winning it in 6. What's your take?

A profound Laker hater making an official Laker thread?

Dueces.

[RocketGreatness]

Lakers advantages and Why I hope and think they will and win.

-Dwight is also going to be in frequent foul trouble with guarding Gasol and Bynum in the paint and with Kobe Bryant and Trevor Ariza attacking the rim.
-Shard cannot keep up with Gasol, let's get that straight. Gasol has a better chance stopping Shard from launching baseline 3's then Shard does defending Gasol in either high or low post.
-Lakers are way more experienced, nobody on the Magic have been to the Finals. This will actually matter this time, considering the fact that the Lakers were facing a hungry Celtics team last year with 3 Hall of famers.

[D-Rose]

I think the Lakers are much better suited to defending the Magic than the Cavs were. IF Bynum can stay out of foul trouble, he can help keep Gasol on the court. Gasol can score on Shard anytime he wants, Shard would take jumpshots over him which aren't as high of a % of going in.

If Odom plays like he did in the last two games, I think it will go
Game 1 - LA wins
Game 2 - La wins
Game 3 - ORL wins
Game 4 - ORL wins
Game 5 - LA wins
Game 6 - LA wins

Lakers in 6.

[guy]

Bynum easily IMO. IMO Orlando's three-point shooters won't play as well just cause its doubtful that they can stay as hot as they have been plus the matchups aren't as favorable being against Odom, Ariza, and Kobe. But Bynum can be very up and down. If he can play as good as he is capable of playing (17 ppg/11 rpg/3 bpg), he could give Howard alot of trouble, and I don't see the Magic having any chance. But he's capable of dropping a complete dud and not even average half of that, and if that means Howard goes completely off, then the Magic have a great chance..

[Ken_Masters]

Orlando is going to win this series simply because i think Howard is making that leap. I think a dominant big always trumps a dominant swing player. Howard has a look in his eyes like he finally gets it. I don't think the Lakers will be able to stop him, and i think he will carry the Magic to a championship. Don't know in how many games, but i think he gets it done.

[ItsTwisted]

All of the Lakers fans here acting like the Lakers will dominate, come on that is not being resonable. Magic are a very strong team who plays defense and has a good offense, and add Dwight Howard to the mix, you never know what can happen. However people saying Magic in 6, just because of the regular season are greatly wrong. You guys are forgetting that the Cavs given a couple of points here and there could have won this series even with their bad defense and Orlando's three point shooting, as well as Howards massive games, unfortunately their role players did not play up to their potential so they got beat.

With the Lakers you will rarely see them go 3 games with Kobe scoring over 35 and everybody else have less the 15. That happened I believe once in the Nuggets series, and the next game we came back even stronger. Even in the Rockets series that Kobe struggled at times, the role players stepped up and stepped up big, so it will be a huge difference. People acting like Orlando is unbeatable because of the series they went to. The Boston Celtics without KG took them to 7 games, and the Cavs who played bad throughout the whole series almost beat them, so what makes you guys so confident?? Please enlighten me.

Gasol will have problems guarding Howard, however Howard will have bigger problems guarding Gasol as well. It was easier for Howard to guard Ilgauskas because he does not have a post game like Gasols. Also I believe Lebron made some mistakes during the series as well. When they doubled team him, most of the time you saw him kick it out for a three instead of going to the inside to Ilgauskas and getting Howard in foul trouble. Kobe is a smarter player at this point in time and can deliver that ball to Bynum or Gasol, and on top of that you have Ariza open somewhere for a three or Fisher.

The pick and roll with Gasol and Bryant when its working is unstoppable and can cause a lot of trouble this series, I am sure Phil is aware of this as well since we used it last time against Orlando and it worked to perfection unfortunately Jameer Nelson was the key to both of those games in the 4th quarter and killed Fisher. Well now they do not have Nelson, and I am interested in seeing how Fisher will guard Alston even though I think he will have problems since Alston and Brooks are similar and he could not guard Brooks if his life depended on it. However I think Farmar or Brown are very capable of guarding Alston.

The key players in this series are Ariza/Odom for the Lakers and Pietrus/Alston for Orlando. For the Lakers when Odom and Ariza both play great and put up good numbers with Gasol and Bryant, we have not lost a game this whole season including the post season because when the other defense has 4 players to focus on it is much harder to guard and takes out your game offensively. For Orlando the same thing, when ever Pietrus and Alston play well they have won this postseason. I am very interested in seeing how Odom and Ariza do against Lewis and Pietrus, and it will be a very good series. I will say Lakers in 6 though due to our experience, and our role players so far have been playing average and I believe that can carry us over the hill against Orlando, but it definitely will not be easy.

[Kingwillball]

watch some fcuking games before making comments like this....

Kobe can not drive like lebron not even close, he is a glorified jump shooter. Kobe is about to take another knock to his legacy. Pietris will gaurd him similar to the way Battier did.

[ItsTwisted]

Kobe can not drive like lebron not even close, he is a glorified jump shooter. Kobe is about to take another knock to his legacy. Pietris will gaurd him similar to the way Battier did.

Werent you the same person saying the Lakers will get killed by the Nuggets in 6 games and how Jones and JR Smith can guard Kobe? What happened with that, how did it work out?

Comparing Pietrus to Battier is very comical. Before talking nonsense why dont you go and get some basketball knowledge instead of reading books on how to be a hater.

[The_Yearning]

Orl in 6. Rep me if my prediction is correct. If that chump who knows nothing about basketball "Maniak" has that much greens, I'm the Grizzlies of the Gasol deal.