Orlando Magic 96, Los Angeles Lakers 94

Barnes is crazy intense and I seriously hope he brings that to the playoffs and the finals. If he could get in LeBron’s face like that, he might get LeBron to hit him. The best part of the game was that inbounding pass with Matt and Kobe. Kobe is steel, I will give him that. It was a hard fought and well deserved win! I hope they keep this momentum going!

So my old friend Bennet Salvatore wanted to break LA’s losing streak? Man I really hope I don’t have to see that mobster doing Mavs games in the playoffs. I hate him so much.

Wow.

Also Barnes Power lies in the Tats!

I agree that the calls were awful for both teams.

He’s like Rasheed Wallace reincarnate. He gets into the heads of superstars. btw, ESPN’s early headline was that Orlando “escaped” with a win over LA. Interesting, considering LA never led the game after the first 7 minutes.

I couldn’t catch the game live because it was on at 4am my time, but man… what a game. Matt Barnes should be ORDERED to watch tape of his performance before each big game (against the Cavs, Lakers, Mavs, Nuggets and Celtics) from now until the end of the season [playoffs included]. His aggression was absolutely a key to this win. I would even go so far as to say his intimidation played a big role in Kobe’s scoreless stretches (pre 4th quarter when his insane talent inevitably shone through). His (Matt’s) performance tonight is his new bench-mark. THAT is the standard he needs to try and replicate.

As for Vince – ditto. While he’s clearly not going to make 13-14 from the line every game, that intent that we saw from him (which we’ve also seen against the Celtics and Cavs) is what he needs to hold on to. For him, his effectiveness is measured almost entirely by offensive efficiency and when he can score like he did tonight without having to rely on his jumper (though he did take a few), that’s when he’s at his best.

Outstanding stuff from Vince, Matt, and Jameer. OUTSTANDING result.

I’m only worried that we might see more slanted officiating like this during the playoffs.

What a great game :)) Went with my pops, total Finals-like atmosphere.. Everyone played pretty well, VC needs to keep playing like this in the playoffs. Jameer played great overall, and Barnes/MP really stepped up. 4/9 3PT’s for Ice-O too.
Dwight didn’t have his best offensive game tho, the problem is that help defenders from LA, particularly Fisher, do such a good job of not letting Dwight know if they are coming to double or stick with the shooters. They are at the perfect distance to bother both options and SVG needs to iso Dwight better or something! Just a minor thing as the Magic won anyways, but if Dwight was playing like the first matchup against LA from earlier in the season, then this game wouldn’t have been as close. Also, working on crunch-time plays that eat clock time but also don’t turn into TO’s or bad opportunities- this could be tough to measure properly as it was a good defensive team like LA that also has more experience and chemistry, but still Jameer and VC in particular could work on late game situations/plays so the rest of the team isn’t standing around too much. Just two quibbles to a victory, but as long as the Magic play this kind of D and VC/Jameer play this well, I like the Magic’s chances all the way.

Dwight has go to the body of Bynum, be is too long to give him space.

Thanks to OPP & T-Mobile, had an amazing view of all those ridiculous calls (and non-calls.) Can’t wait to review the tape. Basically, Kobe isn’t good enough to single handedly carry the Lakers. He’s no LeBron James.

Absolutely tremendous level of intensity today. I’ve been to playoff games before that were no where near as competitive as this one. What a treat.

Hopefully it gets rescinded. It was kinda unnecessary. Unless he said something REALLY bad, that was nothing compared to everything else going on in the game.

Instead of how good the Magic are.

Credit the Lakers for staying within striking distance the entire time against the Magic. Orlando had a hand in that by not taking good care of the ball but still, Los Angeles deserves credit for playing a hard-fought game.

Carter and Nelson continue to play well. Jameer didn’t have the most efficient performance on offense but he scored when the opportunity presented itself, was a terror in the pick & roll and as such, did a great job of distributing the basketball to his teammates. I know Matt Barnes is public enemy #1 with Lakers fans but that’s why Dwight Howard wanted him on the team, to bring toughness and scrappiness. Provide intangibles. Gortat played very well in limited minutes and Bass did okay (his defense was a bit better). All in all, a good win.

I won’t speak of the refs, I did that last night. My point is the TOs. They hurt the Magic big but this time they were more because of L.A.‘s defense than just silly losts of focus. I think the team gave a very good effort, and au contraire of other games didn’t gave up the energy even when Lakers came back in the 4rth. The only thing that worries me a bit with LA is that even if Magic beats them on the boards they give the impresson of a size advantage under the rim.
I also thought Nelson was great (Barnes was the man) and wouldn’t consider that LA could take this one.

Bryant attempted 16 of the Lakers’ 25 shots in that final period (making 7).

Several times in the last 5 or 6 minutes, the Lakers came to within 2 points, but never were able to tie the game because the Magic were able to answer each time. The Magic made 7 of their final 8 shots of the game. Now, if the Magic had been able to make more of their free throws (they made just 7 of 13 in the fourth and 11 of their last 21 overall) and not turn the ball over as much as they did, the game wouldn’t have been as close.

How about the job the Magic did on Ron Artest and Andrew Bynum, as those two players combined for just 13 points on 3 of 15 shooting.

Regarding the officiating… I’m not going to get too worked up over it, since the Magic attempted 13 more free throws than the Lakers. Sure, there were some obvious bad calls against the Magic, but to be fair, some bad calls went against the Lakers, too. It was a very difficult game to officiate, with both teams being so physical.

But, truth be spoken, we need to do BETTER.
Kobe missed some shots I do not expect to see him missing anytime soon.
D12 needs improvements in our tactics, careful passing to him is a start, isolate more whenever possible.
Bynum went in foul trouble early, like Dwight did too. That’s my only concern regarding refs.
How come Dwight can’t get any discount on those calls, like other superstars do?
Yes, Pau, he’s way bigger and stronger than you are, but it’s not my fault, man.

Both teams got plenty of raw deals.

Speaking of Dwight’s offensive “struggle,” Ben said:

Andrew Bynum—when he wasn’t seething on the bench due to foul trouble—gave [Dwight] fits….

Taking me some time to familiarize myself with their layout, etc, but I think in a game or two, I’ll be able to locate numbers more at a glance. Right now, takes me longer to read that boxscore than Ben’s recap. lol.

I like how SVG praised Jameer. In retrospect, except for the late 4th quarter when Jameer was slowing slowing down, he was carving and penetrating the defense all night long. This is the stuff that will give the Lakers-killer even more confidence against them and anyone else on the way in the playoffs.