Luka’s Corner

The NBA Finals are finally set after seven months of preparation and the Cleveland Cavaliers will not play the Los Angeles Lakers for the NBA championship. Not many people can say that at the start of the postseason, they predicted that the Orlando Magic would be in the final round. Everyone wanted a Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron James duel, but it will be a Kobe Bryant/Pau Gasol vs. Hedo Turkoglu/Rashard Lewis/Dwight Howard duel instead. As ESPN’s Chris Broussard explained, the stage was simply not set for the Cavs. However, I firmly believe that this series will be just as exciting.

My reasoning is that if the Cavs made it to the Finals to face the Lakers, the Lakers would have an easier time. During the regular season, Los Angeles had a 2-0 record against Cleveland, even winning in Cleveland to snap the Cavaliers’ home winning streak. Just like the Magic, the Lakers had a favorable match-up with the Cavaliers on all positions. And, as we saw in the Cleveland-Orlando series, regular season series do matter in the postseason. Orlando had won 8 of 11 games against the heavily favored Cleveland and that carried over to the Playoffs.

Unlike the Cleveland-Orlando series, where it was clear that the Magic had a favorable match-up, it is not so in this Finals series. Although Orlando went 2-0 against the Lakers during the regular season, the win at the Staples Center came with Jameer Nelson, who is out for the season, scoring 28 points and hitting big shots down the stretch.

And, while Orlando creates match-up problems for any team they play because they have Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis, Phil Jackson has the appropriate defenders at his disposal. He can counter Orlando’s three-point shooting by going small, putting Kobe Bryant and Trevor Ariza on Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis, while playing Lamar Odom on Dwight Howard. Using this lineup will minimize, to some extent, Orlando’s three-point shooting.

To me, the wild card in this series is Mickael Pietrus. As Orlando’s 6th man, he gives the Magic outside shooting (he outscored Cleveland’s entire bench in the Conference Finals) and stability on defense. He will have he responsibility of guarding Kobe Bryant down the stretch, just as he guarded LeBron James in the Conference Finals. As an athletic defender who stands at 6-6, the Frenchman is the exact kind of guy who can slow Bryant. He is a clear upgrade over Dahntay Jones, who allowed the "Black Mamba" to average 34 PPG off of 48.1% shooting from the field.

As is the case in any Finals, there are plenty of juicy storylines in this Orlando-Los Angeles series to keep those of us who wanted a Kobe-LeBron Final interested. A long series, which I predict this to be, also won’t hurt.