Kobe's 40 helps put the clamps on Orlando in Game 1

Phil Jackson teams are 429-0 when they win Game 1

June 7th, 2009, Author: robd

AP Photo/Chris Carlson

I watched parts of Game 1 Friday afternoon at work, trading emails with a few friends about a possible Magic upset, before heading out to a farewell lunch. I checked the scores later on my phone – in the space of one quarter the game had been blown to high hell. Curious to understand how this happened despite Jameer Nelson’s apparent resurrection, I watched a replay of the game this morning. Here is what I learnt.

Andrew Bynum’s first nine minutes was worth infinitely more than the 8 points and 3 rebounds he recorded on the stat sheet. It was a crazy statement by the Lakers, that despite all the obvious problems Dwight presented coming into this series, and despite all the other match ups they were supposed to exploit – Gasol on Lewis, Bryant on Lee – that they looked to get the ball in Andrew Bynum’s hand early and often. All of a sudden Dwight was forced to focus on an opponent who was outplaying him, something that probably hadn’t entered his brain as a possibility throughout these playoffs. Bynum’s impact wore off as the game went on, but the statement had been made: he won’t just be a fifth body on that Lakers starting unit. Dwight had arguably his worst game of the playoffs, and while there were many factors contributing to that (he rushed his offense too often, his teammates missed open shots) don’t underestimate the effect Bynum’s first quarter had.
While we’re talking about “statements”, could Jameer Nelson have envisaged a more perfect and fear-inspiring start? I’ve got to admit, I gave him very little chance of making any impact in this series – I saw his inclusion as a risk to both the Magic’s team dynamic and possibly Nelson’s own health. Then I watched him dart around early in the second quarter, making perfect passes and sinking his first jump-shot. The only “risk” I saw was my Lakers-in-six prediction. When he found Courtney Lee for the layup which put Orlando up by five, the Lakers called time out – this was a turning point of the game. The Jameer Nelson Experiment was apparently working, the Lakers all of a sudden looked very vulnerable at the point, the nightmares of their two regular season games were resurfacing. Had Orlando been able to make some stops and some shots, that five point lead could have easily blown out to 10+, but the opposite happened. Walton gave us his best five minutes of the playoffs so far, opening the door for Kobe to go ballistic, and the Lakers went into the half up by 10. The Magic wouldn’t get any closer for the rest of the game.
We have to talk about Kobe, who turned in his first ever Finals 40-point game and became only the fourth player in NBA history to go 40-8-8 in a Finals game (joining West, Jordan and Shaq). It was an offensive clinic, a mix of solid post-up play against the smaller Lee, some gorgeous turnaround shots over Pietrus, a couple of lightning drives through the heart of the Magic defense, and another perfect performance from the stripe (he’s now made 38 of his last 40 free throws). Throw in 8 assists, 8 boards, a huge block on Gortat (5:55 into this clip) and a few more of those jaw-protruding snarls and you had the look of a man who played like his life depended on it. And in a way, it does. Without disrespecting Orlando, the weight of history on Kobe’s shoulders in these Finals is greater than most individuals have had to bear in June for many years. How often do you see a legitimate Top 10 all-time player have a chance to cement that legacy? I’ll give you a clue: not very often. Despite that, after the game you didn’t hear any Kobe show-boating or references to himself in the third person. “The best thing we can do, is forget about it [Game 1]” was all Kobe could say. If the Lakers triumph in this series, you can be rest assured Kobe’s Game 1 will be far from forgotten.
Orlando missed shots. Plain and simple, they missed shots. Shots that even my half-sober friends make during our Thursday night games. They shot 30% from the field and only scored 51 points over the final three quarters. On this night they died by the three – they didn’t actually shoot that terribly from long range (35%) but almost one in every three shots came from there. Turkoglu got off to a hot start and looked like he was going to present problems for Ariza, but that was short lived. So was Jameer Nelson’s impact, who even Stan Van Gundy admitted was kept on the court for way too long. This was the kind of mistake I was fearing for Orlando, the challenge in maintaining a healthy coexistence between two starting point-guards. I expect Stan to get that mix right (and he’s reiterated that he’s sticking with Rafer in the starting lineup), and I expect Orlando to hit a lot more shots in Game 2. The nerves are out of their system now.
Dwight served up a turd. Out of all the players in this series, Dwight is the one guy I’m rooting hardest for (except maybe Vujacic for various reasons). In this game he looked out of his element. Stage fright is what comes to mind, but the Lakers have to be credited for their strategy. I didn’t think they’d double Dwight – that certainly wasn’t Phil Jackson’s intention based on earlier comments he had made. And they kind of didn’t double Dwight. They pretended to. They sent long defenders like Odom and Ariza at Howard but they never really committed to a true double, at least not in the way Cleveland did. The reason why this worked so well was that Dwight wasn’t being as patient as he was against Cleveland. In that series, he held the ball for 2-3 seconds even after the double came. That gave Dwight more time to make decisions and more time for his teammates to get open. In Game 1, “patience” was something Dwight really lacked. As a result he often passed it up too early, his teammates weren’t in good position, and the passes themselves weren’t great. The fact they were missing threes put more pressure on Dwight to score, and this only made him rush his shots. I expect he’ll have learnt a lot from this game – without doubt the most pressure-packed game of his career so far.