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Los Angeles Lakers 101, Orlando Magic 96 (OT)

Lakers lead series 2-0

1. Redemption For Gasol and Odom

When the Lakers were getting their behinds kicked by the Celtics in last year's Finals, the easy blame for the softness and passivity fell on Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom. Both lean, agile, quick and talented, both without a shred of bloodlust lingering anywhere in their DNA. One could argue that the slow dismantlement of that supposedly proud purple and gold outfit occurred as Kobe Bryant watched his team's second and third best players get bounced around without a gritty response and allowed his disgust to help disintegrate whatever chemistry existed, resulting in that embarrassing Game Six 2008 Finals blowout.

Tonight the Lakers were a last-second Courtney Lee layup from landing back in the pressure cooker, but it is fair to say that when  it came to doing all the big and little things required to snatch a ring, both Gasol and Odom more than held their own, and were genuinely as much a part of this victory, sending LA up 2-0, as was Kobe. It isn't hard to suss the Lakers' strategy: Job One is making sure that Dwight Howard doesn't get anything easy at the rim. But Howard was a much better player than the turgid giant who registered but one field goal in the series opener. From kick-outs to rebounds to transition energy to low post offense (his weakest aspect of the four just mentioned), "Superman" was more engaged. He also sank 7-9 free throws, and even the two misses were in a shooter's rhythm and not Shaq-like liners or archers off the back iron an exaggerated knee bends on the shot. Put simply, Howard came to play, much to the consternation of Andrew Bynum, who committed five fouls and had one rebound in 16:24. But with help from a rotating and trapping cast of characters, including Odom, Gasol once again did a stolid job on Howard. Put it this way, it is impossible to imagine Howard getting 40 points on a team that has Pau Gasol. Think about how silly that might have sounded last year. But, like Odom, Gasol has "toughened up" without losing his signature finesse. On defense, he's moving his feet and keeping his arms up--two crucial attributes to avoid fouls--daring Howard to have enough refined offense to score against his seven-foot length while his teammates are doubling down and rotating over. And when Gasol does look like he's about to get torched, he commits the hard, smart, sure foul. At the other end, Gasol' is a dream for interior passing, possessing both the vision to hit cutters with little shovel dishes, and the hands to receive similar passes from his teammates. If Howard strays, Gasol can make him pay. That's a big difference between the Lakers and everyone else the Magic have played in these playoffs. it was Gasol's and-one layup off a feed from Kobe that finally decided this game and it was Gasol's 7 points in overtime that led all scorers.

Odom? He canned 8 of 9 of his own shots and blocked three of Orlando's. His defense wasn't as good as Gasol's (more than once, the cameras caught him sloughing on perimeter switches, or was it just the schemes not being executed by others?), but he matched up with everyone from Marcin Gortat to Hedo Turkoglu, battled on the boards and pressured the Magic in transition. He finished with a game-best plus +10 in 45:43, which means LA was minus -4 in the 7:17 he sat. Bottom line, if Gasol and Odom don't take their Celtic beatdown as a personal challenge and vivid remembrance and fail to elevate their games the way each did tonight, the Lakers are tied at 1-1 heading to Orlando.

2. Unsolicited Advice For Stan Van Gundy

The first quarter was brutal, a 15-15 score, and more than one person was wondering if the Laker plan to deter Howard in the low block and then let their length and quickness provide enough pressure on the close-outs to sweep the Magic. Yes, many of the perimeter jumpers Orlando was clanking looked makeable, but those four or five extra inches on LA's defenders, and not nerves or the law of averages after a couple of lights-out series for dead-eye long-range shooting, might have been the difference. Then Rashard Lewis proved Orlando's inside-outside schemes were still viable. It was Lewis who figured out how to counterpunch the Lakers' hell-bent elasticity from paint to perimeter. Receiving the dish from the surrounded Howard, he'd fake the trey and penetrate a dribble-bounce or two inside the onrushing defender, then either can the jumper or dish to the wide-open teammate whose man just left to collapse on Lewis. But when his teammates couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, Lewis took matters into his own hands. In the second period, he scored 18 of his team's 20 points, shooting 7-10 while the other Magic went 1-13, with the lone non-Lewis make coming off one of his feeds. After scoring a game-high 20 points in the first half, he dished for a game-high 5 assists in the second half and overtime, finishing with 34 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists. Those are Kobe-like numbers to go with his Kobe-like shots to finish off the Celtics and Cavs in crunchtime. The point is not that  Rashard Lewis is the second coming of Kobe--he's far from it--but that he's not the guy who deserves grief for signing a ridiculously expensive contract while being the third-best player on his team. Right now it doesn't look like such a foolish investment.

Just as Lakers want to do everything possible to take away Howard from Orlando's offense, the Magic are trying to minimize the damage Kobe wreaks when the Lakers have the ball. Both stars face a myriad assortment of traps and rotations, which is why despite playing relatively savvy, gritty games tonight, both committed 7 turnvoers. To continue the comparison, just as the Lakers' default defense on Howard--Gasol instead of Bynum as the primary backstop--worked better than the original concept, the Magic should be discovering that starter and initially-designated Kobe-stopper Courtney Lee is simply overmatched here. You can see Kobe coast when Lee is on him. He knows he can get off his shot whenever he wants, so he spends more time surveying the floor, looking to involve his teammates. In Game Two, you could see that Lee took to heart suggestions that he wasn't sufficiently aggressive, but all his newfound industry got him was a pair of quick whistles and a seat on the bench. Bottom line, it is time to take Courtney Lee off Kobe Bryant.

This quasi-demotion would be much easier to execute if Lee wasn't the one who went up a tad too strong on the last second layup in regulation and essentially blew an Orlando win as a result. All season long, Lee has demonstrated remarkable poise and self-regard for a rookie, but it is difficult to imagine his disposition not taking a significant hit if he loses his starting assignment right after the layup muff. But no matter. Mickael Pietrus needs to begin the game on Kobe and the next option should be Hedo Turkoglu, who defended the "Black Mamba" better than any other Magic player during the fourth quarter and overtime of tonight's contest. If Turkoglu wasn't so important to the facilitation of the offense, I'd gamble sapping much of his energy deterring Kobe.

However you want to parse it, Orlando's backcourt is killing their chances of beating LA as the substitution rotations are now constituted. Tonight, Alston, Lee, Pietrus, Reddick and Nelson shot a combined 7-30 FG, including 1-13 from three-point range. In Game One, the same quintet were 14-43 FG and 5-16 from beyond the arc. As if that weren't bad enough, four of the five can't guard Kobe and have allowed Derek Fisher sufficient space for his jumper and a paucity of resistance for his dribble drives to boost his confidence. Normally I agree with most everything Jeff Van Gundy says, but the staunch advocacy he and his broadcast partner Mark Jackson make for Jameer Nelson is nuts. Yes, Nelson is the most talented point guard on the team, and no, he is not the guy to play his way back into rhythm and team chemistry after many months of successful high-pressure games in his absence. In fact, along with starting Pietrus, I'd give forgotten point guard Anthony Johnson back his minutes, because Johnson, like Turkoglu, generally makes the smart, unflashy play, and smart and unflashy are the best weapons against the Lakers' length and quickness. In my humble opinion, Johnson is also the best defensive matchup for Fisher. Does that mean you don't play Nelson at all? Maybe. It depends on the foul situation and the matchups. The more time you put Turkoglu on Kobe, the more you ride Johnson or Nelson at the expense of Rafer Alston, because you need to compensate for lesser facilitation of the offense while he concentrates on D.

This much we do know: Courtney Lee can't guard Kobe Bryant. Hedo Turkoglu looks like he can do it for some stretches. Rafer Alston likewise looks like a bad matchup in this series unless he can figure out how to beat the Lakers' bigs back in transition--or determines he's tough enough to stop Fisher off the dribble. Sticking with Lee and Alston as your starting backcourt is not a recipe for surmounting a 2-0 deficit against the Lakers. Nor is riding Jameer Nelson at the expense of Anthony Johnson.

3. Quick Hits

Jeff Van Gundy is bending over backwards not to show favoritism towards his brother's team, but even he couldn't help but point out that the 6th foul on Pietrus should have been a no-call, and ditto the whistle on Turkoglu when Kobe inexplicably fell down and grabbed his left hammy and buttocks. Meanwhile, Trevor Ariza collided hard with Lewis out on the perimeter and because no shot or pass was being attempted and Lewis maintained his dribble, no call was made. I have no problem with that--provided Pietrus and Turkoglu are afforded the same respect at the other end fo the court.,

The out of bounds play devised by Stan Van Gundy at the buzzer in regulation was brilliant--at least in concept. Coming out of the timeout, everyone was wondering whether they'd alley oop to Howard or try to free up their large outside gunners, Lewis and/or Turkoglu. Instead, it was a multiple pick situation that allowed Lee to sneak free and receive a lob and an open lane to the hoop. The great defender Kobe Bryant was caught with his shorts down. Much as I'd love to unconditionally laud SVG, however, one reason you go to the expected crunchtime guys at crunchtime is because they are less likely to muff their window of opportunity. SVG opted to live and die diagramming a scheme to free up a rookie on the franchise's most important play in 15 years--and died with it.

As the NBA opened their training camps in October and people imagined the Lakers' quest in returning to the Finals, how many envisioned such a large role for defensive stopper Trevor Ariza? It is the key role players that elicit the intimacy of shared trivia when recalled decades later. Ariza will do that for 40-something hoops junkies in LA round about 2035.