Thoughts On The Finals

Well, the last five and a half minutes, because thats all I really saw.

People can say that experience doesn't matter in the Finals, but after this game, I don't know how that is even an argument.

Last year, the Celtics won the Finals because they played better defense, were tougher, and more seasoned than a early blooming, relatively green Lakers team. Now the Lakers are in the Celtics position, and the Magic are the newcomers.

I never felt confident in the Magic, even when they appeared to have it wrapped up. Why? Free throw shooting. Poor free throw shooting is footballs turnovers, if you miss a lot of free throws in a big game, you will lose. The Magic are young, they were tight, and it showed. They made mental error after mental error, and the Lakers, despite being outplayed, hung in there. The Magic are talented, but mentally weak, and now, the series is over.

Some of the errors made by the Magic include:

The poor free throw shooting, really Rashard Lewis? Splitting free throws when your an 80% free throw shooter? Earn that 100 million.

Van Gundy's mismanagement of the point guards. Jameer Nelson is not an offensive threat right now, he can create, and thats it. I personally guarantee you that if Van Gundy played offense/defense toward the end, and the taller, lankier, better defender, Rafer Alston was in there, Fisher doesn't make the shot. Nelson didn't pressure the ball, he allowed Fisher to step right into the three pointer. Nelson's indecisiveness and poor defensive rotation is why they lost the game.

The in bounds catastrophe at the end of regulation, horribly handled by the inbounder, and petrus missed a wide open rashard lewis in the corner(his money shot by the way) and instead threw up a wild jumper that had no chance.

Ugly.