Who do you think will win, and how many games?

Seems to me they'll have to pull those Kobe and crybaby (LeBron) muppet ads. What a waste on that crap.

New thread...Magic in 6.

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Why is Lebron James even an option on the survey? Your hate for Lebron is actually unhealthy and I'd go as far as saying weird or freaky. I've disliked some sports players before for various reasons but I've never felt a need to go on and on about it.

I'd imagine that a player on a Cleveland team that also came from the Cleveland area but openly wears a Yankees cap has to be annoying but I really can't think of a reason to outright hate him. Have you met him or something? Does he owe you money?

Anyone that says I'm off topic, well you couldn't be farther from the truth. By putting him in the survey and mentioning him more in the original post more than the series itself, he has been officially made a part of the topic. Now if someone wants to delete this thread and make a proper Lakers versus Magic thread, that might be a good idea.

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

Yeah i have to agree here as well. This should be about the finials not what he thinks about Lebron. Lets keep that shall we. I am going with the Magic here.

I edited the poll.....I don't want to see LeBron's name mentioned on here again in the remaining posts....he is not a part of this, let's leave him out. If you don't have a prediction, just don't vote; simple as that!

Anyway, Phil Jackson will be going for a coaching record 10th NBA Championship, which would move him past Arnold Red Auerbach, who currently along with Phil has nine. Kobe and Derek Fisher both are going for their fourth title each.

On Orlando's side, Jameer Nelson is looking to return to action, but the Magic say he's still not ready yet.

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator (Originally known as Hurricane)

It's time to play some DEFENSE!

Thank you Jimmy!

Maybe the Orlando Magic wants Jameer Nelson to come back and envisions a moment like Willis Reed walking through the tunnel.

Jimmy, I noticed you didn't make a prediction and vote. I'm curious as to what you think.

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

I said Magic in 7, only because the Lakers seemed really flakey and unpredictable in their series against the Rockets. Yeah, I know they triumphed the Nuggets, but just how up and down they were against a Yao, McGrady, and Mutumbo-less Rockets team kinda says to me that they may not mentally be ready for a championship.

It'll be a good series though!

Go magic. this is great for orlando after that one year where they went on a 20 game losing streak .

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Manta roller coaster 2009

Kyle hit the nail on the head....the Lakers are way too inconsistent to tell how the finals might turn out, so I'm not even going to vote.

If, and a BIG IF, the Lakers play every game in the Finals like they did in Game Six at Denver, I can't see them dropping a game. But if they do to Orlando what they did to my Houston team and let up and give them life, I can easily see this thing going the full seven games.

Both teams have good supporting cast....Kobe and Dwight will respectively get theirs, whichever cast delivers more will win it for their team....also Orlando needs to keep up their three-point storm attack like they did against Cleveland.

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator (Originally known as Hurricane)

It's time to play some DEFENSE!

I been following the Magic for over 10 years now. Did not follow them through their first finals run because I was too young then. Its great to finally have a team that may be able to win an championship. I have follow this team through all those sub .500 years as well as the worst in the league year and now this.

I hope we can finally win a championship and it would be great to prove all who doubted the Magic through the entire playoffs.

Through Boston, through Cleavland, and hopefully through LA, three 60+ wins teams. Lets do it!

I say this will be a good series!

If Orlando can play like they did against the Cavs, then I don't think they will have a problem getting a championship.

Once again, though, the Lakers are unpredictable. They could definitely win this in 4 or 5 games if they stay consistant. However, they seem to have some trouble doing that...

I say Orlando game 7.

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LA takes the first game 100-75, which Kobe scores nearly half of his team's points, but he also had help from his teammates. Kobe was just doing whatever he wanted. Orlando also had one of their worst offensive output of the playoffs...courtesy of LA defense. This is kind of what a lot of people expected with Orlando players being their first time in the Finals and LA having been here before. If the Magic want any chance to win, they need to lose their stage-fright and do so quickly; they don't have any more time to be intimidated by the big stage. And as for LA, they cannot let up, they need to keep this pace up the whole series, especially when this shifts to Orlando; they can't be inconsistent.

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator (Originally known as Hurricane)

It's time to play some DEFENSE!

^I don't really think it was that the Magic had "stage-fright," they just simply didn't make shots. No one is going to win a finals game shooting less than 30 percent from the field. Not sure about the final stats but at one point in the fourth the Magic were shooting better on threes than twos, so it wasn't just that they were missing their three pointers. Nelson played decent in his first game back and I expect him to be a big factor in the series. I think the Magic will play better and take the next game, this team bounces back very well.

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GO MAGIC

Believe me, they were very nervous....it happens to everybody playing in their first finals. I also expect them to play better in Game Two, they are capable of playing better, and these Lakers also have a history of easing up and relaxing after a victory like this, both factors might very well add up to a different game than we saw tonight.

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator (Originally known as Hurricane)

It's time to play some DEFENSE!

It looked like Kobe Bryant couldn't be stopped and that the Magic haven't anyone that could stop him. An announcer made a good point too sometime during the game. It was said that Kobe Bryant doesn't have anyone that he really has to defend hard so he can concentrate on the offense. Simply put, if Bryant doesn't have to work especially hard on defense, he has that much more energy on the offensive side of the ball.

I'm not surprised Jameer Nelson came back. It's the NBA Finals and if he had any chance to play without a major risk of further injury, of course he would play. Not just for the chance to win and help your team but just the honor and experience of playing in the highest stage of the NBA. I don't know how much of a factor he will be for the Magic because of his time off and how will he do over the course of the series.

A stat I think I read on ESPN a few days before the series started was that Phil Jackson is 43-0 when his team wins the first game. Will the Lakers make it 44-0 for Jackson?

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

As someone who has watched nearly every Magic game for the last 5 years, I can tell you they weren't nervous. They played pretty well in the first quarter and then after that couldn't find any offense and were a little bit confused with what the Lakers were doing on defense. Usually "stage fright" would come out in the first quarter, and that certaintly wasn't the case. The Magic just didn't execute. I think its put best by the Magic blog Third Quarter Collapse

"I tend not to buy any hype about how some teams "want it more," while others are "happy to be here," and that's why the games play themselves out. Both the Magic and the Lakers are worthy combatants for the NBA title, and both want to win. Heart, desire, other intangibles really don't matter here. Kobe did not score 40 because he wanted it more, or because he's a born winner, etc. Kobe scored 40 because he played intelligently, took good shots against reasonably good defense from Pietrus and Courtney Lee, and converted them. The Magic didn't shoot 30% because they were satisfied just to reach the Finals, or because they have stage fright, but because the Lakers contested almost every shot quickly and intellgently. Sure, Orlando had some offensive lapses, but those in and of itself are not unique to the Finals. The Magic failed to execute in the first game of the season, a 14-point loss to the Atlanta Hawks at home. But here, at the NBA Finals, the highest level of basketball competition in the world, nobody can afford to make those mistakes. Work the pick-and-roll more diligently, find more open looks, convert them... and maybe this game is closer. But, in a 25-point game, it's hard just to point at one thing and say, "well, if the losing team did that better, they'd have won."

The good thing for the Magic is their coach is great at making adjustments. The Magic will just have to execute and make shots to win game 2, which I think they will do. Shooting below 30 percent is what you call a more than awful shooting night.

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GO MAGIC

I just felt like posting so that there was a record of me having picked the Lakers. I should have said so before game 1 along with having voted. I noticed I was the only one who voted for them. Interesting.

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

Okay...hold the phone.

I hate to do this again...but what makes it OK in your own mind to come in here and go "Haha see I was right? IN YOUR FACE". Then all of a sudden when everyone calls you out and says your pick was wrong all hell breaks loose and we offend you?

Uh oh:

Who's offended? I'm not offended nor should anyone else be. I just meant to make my post about it earlier but never got around to it. So...I got around to it.

And "in your face"? C'mon, I'm more mature than that now. It's been a long time since I've said something like that...probably weeks now.

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

Did you see any of the games between the Lakers and Magic this season?

Game two is on now, wooo.

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"For each path you walk down, there are several others you have to bypass. Maybe walking those paths would have made you happy, maybe they wouldn't have. You'll never know. Choose your path, walk it, and make the best of it."

Who are you asking?

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

You; just kidding around.

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"For each path you walk down, there are several others you have to bypass. Maybe walking those paths would have made you happy, maybe they wouldn't have. You'll never know. Choose your path, walk it, and make the best of it."

Oh ok, my mistake. Sometimes my defensive side is set to high.

In all honesty, I don't watch too much NBA other than the Bulls and some of the "highlight" games featured on TNT when I can. Then I try to watch as much of the playoffs as possible. As it is, I was only able to watch the second half of game 1 and I'm just about to leave work and should be home in time to catch the second half of this game.

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

Even with a hard fought loss, the Magic come back home down 0-2, dropping to the Lakers 101-96 in OT. Those of us that still believe the Magic can take the series in 6, I think we need to start praying.

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The Los Angeles Lakers take a commanding 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals. I say commanding, because only twice in the history of the 2-3-2 format has the home team hosting the middle three games ever won all three consecutively; and the Lakers are a very good road team. While Orlando has their work cut out for them, they will have their home crowd rocking and behind them every second.

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator (Originally known as Hurricane)

It's time to play some DEFENSE!

Just need to take it one game at a time. Game 3 is huge obviously.

I just can't get over the complete inability to finish chances.

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"For each path you walk down, there are several others you have to bypass. Maybe walking those paths would have made you happy, maybe they wouldn't have. You'll never know. Choose your path, walk it, and make the best of it."

Orlando finally wins their first Finals game in their history....they are now 1-6. The Lakers got way too careless and desperate in the last minute. The Magic will try to tie up the series on Thursday.

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator (Originally known as Hurricane)

It's time to play some DEFENSE!

Thing that makes me nervous is it took the Magic a record setting shooting night to win a close game... Lakers made their shots in the 4th and came too close to comfort to making it 3-0.

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"For each path you walk down, there are several others you have to bypass. Maybe walking those paths would have made you happy, maybe they wouldn't have. You'll never know. Choose your path, walk it, and make the best of it."

The LA Lakers are just a game away from their 15th NBA Championship and are up 3-1 over Orlando. The Lakers only had a single free throw attempt in the entire 4th Q and OT, and that one came in the closing seconds after the game was already decided. Derek Fisher and Trevor Ariza came up big in the clutch. Dwight Howard came just one more block away from a triple-double.

And now history is really on the Lakers' side; no team in NBA Finals history has ever come back from down 3-1 to even tie it, let alone win it. Can Orlando defy all logic and become the first?

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator (Originally known as Hurricane)

It's time to play some DEFENSE!

You can tell that tension is building as seen by the flagrant foul in the end of OT. It was a dirty play committed by Pietrus (I think it was him) pushing Gasol in the back as he dunked. There was no reason for that, the game was virtually over and the Lakers had won it. I don't mind some hard fouls but I really don't care for plays like that.

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

Elbow to Nelson? I like how you completely left that out.