I would love to see Orlando topple LA in the finals. I think they just might do it too. East coast BBall is so much more physical than west coast . The west coast guys just stand around and watch each other shoot.

I got psyched on watching Orlando through the playoffs when they beat the Celtics. Even without garnett you need a pretty good team to beat the Celtics. All those games were close and that's when I decided Orlando could take it all. I was not surprised they drubbed Cleveland. No team that totally relies on one player ever wins. Even Wilt the Stilt's teams could not win the 5 against one game. Lebron is good but you need a team to win the Championship.

Anyway , I see Orlando getting Physical with LA and perhaps making a good series out of it. If the refs don't allow the banging I guess LA has the big advantage in height and talent but if the refs let them play , I don't think LA can mix it up with the Magic.

Should be a good series.

still can't believe Cleveland lost. Go Orlando.

I'm not really an NBA fan any more, but there isn't a team in all of professional sports that I detest more than the Los Angeles Lakers.

And until MIchael Vick gets re-instated, there isn't a player I detest more than Kobe Bryant.

Go Magic :cheers2:

Gonna be the Lakers in 5.......

Pao Gasol is the Kurt Rambis (equally Despised) of this squad.....I wish that nitwit would freakin close his mouth for a few minutes once in awhile....always got that pouty, goofy ass, open mouth look going on...can't stand the guy

Gonna be the Lakers in 5.......

Pao Gasol is the Kurt Rambis (equally Despised) of this squad.....I wish that nitwit would freakin close his mouth for a few minutes once in awhile....always got that pouty, goofy ass, open mouth look going on...can't stand the guy

Howard is going to make Gasol look terrible in this series. If Orlando can keep the hot shooting hand, they have a good chance at beating the Lakers. There isn't anyone on LA that can match up with Howard.

Rooting for Orlando - lots of experts are picking LA just like they did last year when they picked LA over the Celts. Orlando plays better defense. Hopefully they can knock off the Lakers.

Cleveland looked too much like a two man team. Lebron is amazing but if there was ever evidence that the NBA needs a 5 second rule it was game 5. They got the ball to Lebron with 20 seconds on the shot clock and he would just stand there not doing anything and holding the ball for 15 seconds - then make his move with 5 seconds on the shot clock. Booorrrring. NBA needs to fix this. Lebron is not the only one - all NBA teams do it. Make these guys pass the ball.

DZ

I'm also leaning towards Orlando. Lots of young players and MAN they can shoot the lights out when they're hot....

Plus if they win the title, we can say we (Celts) lost to the best team in the NBA....and we only lost my a little..... AND without 2 of our star players.
Just a thought........Go Orlando....

Poor King James is tasting only sour grapes these days....
I truly thought they would play much better than they did....

I suspect the magic will not play as bad as they did last night (game 1) for the rest of the series. The lakers were rolling on all cylinders, even Luke Walton showed up for the job.

I must say, I'd like to see the Magic win and they have the pieces to beat LA. But Van Gundy pales in comparison to ill Phil.

I think the refs are pretty one way around Bryant. He gets every call. Charge or no foul at all and he gets the call. defense has to back off or they get called on a foul. Just cause he's the big star doesn't mean the refs have to help him out. I must have seen 10 calls where it was a clean block or he was charging and the call went against Olando.

Just for the sake of equal critiquing , I think howard needs to practice 5 hours of.... in his hands and to the hoop. He always dribbles once and that is killing him. Its just a bad habbit many guys have. You see it all the time in college ball but usually the pros have had it coached out of them. He needs someone to work on it with him.Once he gets the ball , the hoop is 3 feet from his hands but instead he goes down 7 feet and has to dribble. The defense knows this and is just automatically looking low to poke the ball after he gets a pass. Its costing him more than 5 or 6 baskets a game from inside the paint.

Anyway , this series is one missed layup away from a big upset. Lewis makes that layup (and he should have) and its 2-1 Orlando.

i put the over/under at 500. that's the number of times a day espn says kobe. they keep refering him as the greatest ever. are you kidding me. now he's the best ever in the 4th quarter. just what happened to kobe last year in the 4th.
PLEASE these sport personalitys need to get a outlook. not just the companys.

best ever my a$$. I can think of about 20 guys I'd want before him. never mind the whole league , just look at the lakers before him. He doesn'y even make the lakers best ever 5 guy list Which of these Lakers would you not pick over Kobe if you wanted to win championships? ....Magic , West , Baylor, Worthy , Chamberland , Goodrich , Jabbar in no particular order. Give me a break! That's just the Lakers who were better than him. If you look at the whole league all time greats , you got to put Kobe somewhere on the cheeleading squad cause he couldn't make 1st , 2nd or 3rd team all time great. I'm not sure Kobe is even one of the 5 best guys in the league now , never mind all time. Half the time these announcers got their heads up their you know what. It just wouldn't go over too big with the league if the announcers told the truth and said there just isn't one truly great player on either of the teams in the finals right now. For my money Turkoglu is the best player on either team right now and I'm not sure even he could have made the original Olympic Dream team. The truth is the whole league has very little talent at all right now so they got to build up who ever they have as great.

Greatest ever...........................
IMHO....

LARRY BIRD....Effortless scoring, super smart player, not super physical.....

Anyway,,,,,Orlando is suffering from "Finals" jitters.
That's 2 games they had in the last minute and blow it.

LA wins again in OT.........What a shame.

Yep , Orlando had their chances and blew it. Any 1 of maybe 6 foul shots by Howard or Turkoglu puts the game on ice. Howard shot 6 of 14 from the line. In plain english...That sucks. I can get more than 6 of 14 in from the line and I'm 56 with an artificial hip. He should be ashamed of himself.

Another one that got me pissed was the way he let himself get manhandled under the basket in the last 2 minutes. If you mauled Cowens like they mauled Howard you'd be in a coma next trip down the court. That's why god gave basketball centers elbows. What a sissy!:realmad:

Bend over Dwight , the Lakers are lined up behind you in the shower and you deserve it!

You mentioned Bird. He shot 89% from the line for his whole carreer and yet he practiced an extra hour every single day just shooting from the line. I doubt Howard has practiced free throws an hour in a whole week.

How about losing the 3rd quarter by 16 points! I agree they are just newbies with playoff jitters. Certainly didn't play like professionals. If you can't win with a 5 point lead and 1 minute left you just are not champions.

"The second place plack is on the wall in the ladies room"

best ever my a$$. I can think of about 20 guys I'd want before him. never mind the whole league , just look at the lakers before him. He doesn'y even make the lakers best ever 5 guy list Which of these Lakers would you not pick over Kobe if you wanted to win championships? ....Magic , West , Baylor, Worthy , Chamberland , Goodrich , Jabbar in no particular order. Give me a break! That's just the Lakers who were better than him. If you look at the whole league all time greats , you got to put Kobe somewhere on the cheeleading squad cause he couldn't make 1st , 2nd or 3rd team all time great. I'm not sure Kobe is even one of the 5 best guys in the league now , never mind all time. Half the time these announcers got their heads up their you know what. It just wouldn't go over too big with the league if the announcers told the truth and said there just isn't one truly great player on either of the teams in the finals right now. For my money Turkoglu is the best player on either team right now and I'm not sure even he could have made the original Olympic Dream team. The truth is the whole league has very little talent at all right now so they got to build up who ever they have as great.


Now he has 4 rings..........One for each of his BIG heads.

LA winning is almost as bad as a New York team winning something. Howard is way overrated. Avg 4 buckets a game for the series. Pitiful for a guy that size. If it isn't a dunk he has no chance to score. Moses never shot from more than 2 feet away and he scored at will. The guy has a lot of learning to do if they have any chance of winning the big one. I think Lebron's team would have given them a better series, although I would still think The Lakers would have won.

I think this is as close as Orlando will ever get in the near future. Turkoglu will probably sign for big bucks somewhere (maybe LA?) and without him they just don't have it.

I don't think anyone but a healthy celtics team would have beaten LA. Had garnet been healthy the Celts would have repeated , no doubt in my mind.

Gonna be the Lakers in 5.......


Why can't I pick the Winning Mega-Millions numbers :huh: