At His Best!

Once again LA proved me right, as they easily handled the Magic in last night's Finals game 1.

Everybody is on the Magic's bandwagon because they beat the defending champion Celtics, and the best team (record wise), the Cavs. People also think that since the Magic beat LA twice in the regular season, then it'll be a repeat performance.

WRONG!

A 25 point defeat doesn't look familiar, does it?

The Magic proved that they can only win one way. The three point shot. And that wasn't much help as they went an abominable 8 for 23. The sad thing is LA left them open at times and they still couldn't make shots. Click Here for Orlando's horrible shooting stats.

Moreover, Stan Van Gundy tried to prove to everyone that he could out coach Phil, when he really didn't even coach his own team. Why would you fix your rotation going into game 1 of the Finals? He got so hung up on the little success Jameer Nelson had, that he didn't play Rafer or Anthony Johnson much, who got them to the NBA Finals.

Credit has to go to LA defensively, who did a great job on Dwight Howard who looked frustrated because he couldn't do much. LA was physical with Howard, quick, and didn't back down from the challenge of facing him. That's all Kobe needed was a little defensive help, because on the offensive end he was a nightmare for the Magic.

The degree of difficult shots he took, was just an understatement of how great a player is. "It's a bit of everything."It's a lot of motivation. A lot of motivation. I'm using it all right now" Bryant stated on ESPN.com

It doesn't surprise me how easy the game came to Kobe. You have a smaller defender on him, who is a rookie, and you expect him to slow down the best player in the NBA. I guess the Magic didn't watch much tape of what Kobe did to the Denver Nuggets last series, namely Chauncey Billups, and Anthony Carter. And you would've thought their defensive stopper Mickael Peitrus would have been able to contain Kobe. However, that elevated his play because he played even better knocking down multiple shots with Peitrus in his face, causing a couple of great "and 1's".

LA basically won the game in the 3rd quarter when Kobe scored 18 of the teams 29 and the lead went from 10 to 24, as the Magic had no answer from that point on. And if Kobe's career Finals high of 40 points didn't do it, him dishing eight assists, and grabbing 8 boards did it.

All the Lakers have to do, is play this way another 3 more games, and the title will be back in Hollywood (where it belongs). I said this before and I'll said it again, the Magic aren't ready for this. Them just getting here was enough for their season to be successful, but it only stops here.

LA has to much versatility for the Magic, and their length causes to much problems as shown in game 1. Game 2 should be no different, except I think Kobe will score less, and get more of his teammates involved.

LA goes up 2-0 heading to Orlando, and they do it in easy fashion once again.