On Thursday night all eyes will be glued to the t.v. as the first game of the 2009 NBA Playoffs will be played between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Orlando Magic. This series should prove to be entertaining and exciting to watch as both teams are very good and each has all star talent. During the regular season, the Magic managed to go 2-0 against the Lakers, defeating them 106-103 in Orlando on Dec. 20th and 109-103 in Los Angeles on Jan. 16th. This would usually mean a lot, but there are several reasons why it does not. Firstly, Jameer Nelson was the leading scorer for the Magic in both of those games, with a combined 55 total points. Good shooting guards have managed to beat up on the Lakers throughout the season. Nelson will not be recovered to play and even if he is, Jameer has not played a game since February and will not be very effective. The Magic also rely heavily on the 3 point shot. Orlando averaged an amazing 38% from beyond the arc during the regular season and will need to shoot well from there if they want to win the series. The Lakers seemed two sided in this years playoffs. They have shown that they can dominate teams at times but still have collapses during games where they let huge leads slip away. They will need both Odem and Bynum to keep Howard away from the rim, or at least foul him an make him earn his points from the free throw line where he has struggled. One thing is for sure, the Lakers have the best player on the planet on there side, Kobe Bryant. He is averaging 26.8 points per game, 4.9 assists per game and 5.2 rebounds per game. I think that this will be a long series that goes to 7 games but the Lakers will prevail.
 

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