I’m pumped for this NBA finals because I think that I have sorely underrated the Magic. That is one good good basketball team who play very well together. What isn’t to like? They have a dominating post presence who isn’t near his prime yet. They have a whole team of shooters and a defensive player to match up against the other teams best. I love the Magic.

That isn’t to say they are going to win but they rolled the dice with Cavs and tried to force anyone but Lebron to beat them and it didn’t happen. If they were to play that series again I believe the Magic would again and again and again. The Cavs didn’t match up very well and they were clearly outcoached by Van Gundy. They had matchup problems all series long and just didn’t have the players to put in the game. Meanwhile the Magic have 4 shooters on the court all game long and when Howard is double teamed it is going around the horn until someone puts it up and they can make them.

What will the Lakers do here? Let me first say that the Lakers are the favorites here. They are loaded and have the best playoff player in the world right now on their team. When push comes to shove the Magic will have to stop Kobe if they want to win this and that will be tough. How will the Magic defend the Lakers though? The Lakers will start Fisher, Kobe, Ariza, Pau, Bynum. The key to this series is Bynum. The Lakers need him down low to slow down Howard and if he doesn’t this will be tough. Gasol is the key matchup problem for the Magic in this series and if he is forced to play center then the Magic will have the edge. If Gasol can play power forward it forces Rashard Lewis to defend him in the post and that won’t happen. One team will have to play to the other teams style and I don’t know who that will be right now.

The Magic were 2-0 against the Lakers this year and this should be a great series. Both teams play well at home and both teams are capable of winning on the road. I’m excited and hope it goes 7.

Lakers in 7 games.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Discussion, NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.