Jun 09
5
Lakers win Game 1 under Kobe’s wing
Lakers have a huge shot now. Game 1 is the Lakers game. Guard Kobe Bryant finished with 40 points as the Los Angeles Lakers beat Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic, 100-75.
Jameer Nelson’s return resulted in him scoring 6 points and dishing 4 assists. The top scorer was backup guard Mickael Pietrus with 14 points for the Magic, and Kobe Bryant dropped in 40 for a team and game high.
The game was close until late in the second quarter when Kobe dropped in a few buckets late in the quarter and it was 53-43, Lakers. The Magic were still close. But in the third quarter Kobe exploded to add 16 points, and it was 82-58. The final score was 100-75.
Game 2 (Sunday, 8 p.m. ET, ABC) is in Los Angeles. And remember, under Phil Jackson, the teams that he coaches that wins Game 1 is undefeated (43-0).
“We’ve never had a shooting night this bad,” Magic center Dwight Howard said. “We’ve just got to come out and play a lot harder than we did tonight.”
Howard had 12 points, 10 of them free throws. He was 1 of 6 from the field. It was tough because he always had 2 or 3 player on him when he got the ball.
“This is a resilient team,” Kobe said of the Magic. “They’ve been through a lot of adverse situations before. This is nothing new to them. We’ve got to forget about this [win] and move on.”
On the dry-erase board in Orlando’s locker room, coach Stan Van Gundy, in handwriting as neat as a schoolteacher’s, devoted two sections on how he wanted his team to defend Bryant.
Nothing worked.
On the eve of Game 1, Bryant said winning his first title since teammate Shaquille O’Neal was traded in 2004 was not that important to him. Bryant bristled at the notion that he wouldn’t have any of his three titles — from 2000-02 — without Shaq as nonsense.
He says he wants No. 4 because it’s the one in front of him.
And he’s three wins from getting it.
Fast Facts
• The Lakers snapped a two-game losing streak in opening games of the NBA Finals (lost Game 1 to the Celtics in 2008 and the Pistons in ’04).
• The 25-point margin of victory is the sixth-largest in Game 1 Finals history and largest since the Bulls’ 33-point win over the Trail Blazers in 1992.
• The Lakers have won 16 straight best-of-seven series when winning the opening game (second-longest such streak in NBA history).
• Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 40 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, marking his 10th career 40-point playoff game and first in the Finals.
• The Magic fell to 0-5 all-time in NBA Finals games and became the third franchise in NBA history to lose its first five Finals games.
• Dwight Howard was 1-for-6, his fewest field goals made in a playoff game in his career.
