The two NBA conference champions have faced plenty of adversity this season to get to the best-of-seven NBA finals showdown.
Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic take centre stage today, with Lakers star Kobe Bryant trying to prove he can win a National Basketball Association title without Shaquille O’Neal and the Magic going for the first championship in franchise history.
The two NBA conference champions have faced plenty of adversity this season to get to the best-of-seven NBA finals showdown.
The Lakers haven’t won a title since 2002 behind dominant centre and self proclaimed “Superman” O’Neal. In Orlando they’ll face a team with its own “Superman” in Dwight Howard.
“If we go hard for 48 minutes every game at the end of the finals we should have a ring. We should have a trophy,” said Howard.
Howard complained early in the playoffs to coach Stan Van Gundy about not getting the ball enough, then capped his semifinal series with a career playoff high 40-point performance in a 103-90 clinching victory win over Cleveland.
The Lakers have 2008 MVP Bryant and are deeper in talent than they were when they lost in six games to the Boston Celtics last year. But Orlando quashed any hopes of a repeat finals between the Celtics and Lakers by beating defending champion Boston in the quarterfinals.
They then ended dreams of a LeBron James versus Bryant showdown by stunning the James’s No. 1 seed Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference championships.
“It is an unbelievable feeling,” Magic forward Rashard Lewis said. “We put a lot of hard work in since September. “A lot of guys came in early before training camp, worked our butts off and we had a great season.
This is the Magic’s first trip to the NBA finals since 1995 — when they were led by a young O’Neal before he was signed as a free agent with the Lakers.
It is the 30th trip to the finals for the storied Laker franchise, which is seeking its 15th NBA championship. The Lakers’ 2002 title was the last of three straight championships. “Now we are in a place where we didn’t get the job accomplished last year,” Bryant said. “Hopefully we will.”
The Magic won both regular season games between the two but they needed late three pointers in each game to do it. Orlando beat the Lakers 106-103 at home in December and 109-103 a month later at Staples Center. Another key matchup will pit Bryant against the Magic’s Mickael Pietrus of France.
At centre, the Magic have a big edge in Howard versus Andrew Bynum. Howard has averaged 21.7 points and 15.4 rebounds in the playoffs after winning the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year
award and leading in rebounds and blocked shots in the regular season.
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