Last year in Game 4, Lakers blew a 24 point lead to the Boston Celtics at home and that lost the series for them. Well one year later, tonight Game 4 of the 2009 NBA Finals was a instant classic. Lakers battled back from a 12 point deficit at halftime and defeated the Orlando Magic in amazing fashion, 99-91 in overtime. Despite how tired the Lakers were, they maintained their cool and showed why they should be champions. So a 3-1 lead.
I watched this game on HD for the 1st time ever on my Sony 52 inch HDTV. We have satellite cable but it wasn't as clear as HD so today,m we bought this antenna. Tomorrow is the DTV transition but HDTV's don't need converter box. I set it up this afternoon and all the over the air channels are in HD. So this game was bright and crisp for me.
The 1st half, Lakers fell asleep. They weren't awake and were down 49-37 at recess. Laker big men were in foul trouble the 1st half and all 12 players played. That's pretty rare in a playoff game. Kobe kept the Lakers in the game in the 1st quarter.
After halftime in the third quarter, Trevor Ariza came to fire. He was 0-6 FG in the 1st half and then in the 3rd quarter, he was the one that sparked the Lakers comeback from 12 down. He nailed a couple threes on passes from Kobe who was double teammed and then drove to the basket more. He had 13 points in the 3rd quarter alone. Usually that's Kobe number, 13 in a quarter. LA took a 67-63 lead to the fourth. In fact at one point in the 3rd quarter, Magic fans chanted "Refrees Suck! Refrees Suck." That's bad sportsmanship by Magic fans.
In the fourth, LA let Orlando back in the game as Orlando took a lot of foul shots and Lakers took none. With about 10 seconds left, Dwight Howard was fouled by Kobe (a smart foul)with the Magic leading 87-84. One freethrow would of made the game into a two possesion game. But he missed both clanking off the rim. Magic had freethrow problems as they only nailed 59% of their free throws, 22-39. That's not gonna get the job done. So Howard missed both freethrows.
Next Laker possession, Lakers decided to take the ball out of bounds from the back court and it was a smart desinged move. Kobe inbounded to Ariza who tossed it cross court to Derek Fisher, who pulled up for three and nailed it in over the shoter Jameer Nelson. Tie game. Orlando missed their buzzer shot and it went into another 5 minutes of play.
In overtime, it started out slowly for both teams as it was 91-91 with over a minute to play as Kobe made both Laker field goal. Then Derek Fisher nailed a three from the top of the key on a pass by Kobe, who was double teammed. 94-91 Lakers and it was all LA from there. Pau Gasol had a game clincher fast break dunk and with that, the Lakers took a 3-1 series lead.
Who says Derek Fisher is old and can't make any shots anymore? Critics were criticizing him during Houston series saying he couldn't give it his standard anymore. Fisher only had 12 points but he knew when to be clutch and knock down the shots when it counted. D-Fish is third alltime on three point field goals made in NBA Finals history just behind Michael Jordan and Robert Horry. He played in his 30th finals game tonight.
Kobe Bryant kept the Lakers in this game the whole game. He made a couple of facial threes and jump shots and finished with 32 points 7 reb and 8 ast. Kobe did a nice job getting teammates the ball and they knocked down shots as Kobe was being double teammed. He has 8 ast all four games so far. What a number. Ariza scored all 16 of his points in the second half and they were clutch as he carried LA in 3rd quarter. Pau Gasol had 16 pts 10 reb and showed his toughness at the last play of the game when M. Pietris flagranted fouled him. He showed that he wasn't soft as he immediately retalliated with the look saying "u play physical I play physical".
All the Lakers tonight was do what they were supposed to do to win. Orlando couldn't close out the game with free throws while the Lakers did. Dwight Howard had 16 pts 21 reb and 9 blk and it was wasted with him not nailing any foul shots. Lakers only had 8 turnovers tonight while Magic had 17. They were costly. The Lakers sucked it up. Kobe Bryant played the whole second half and did not rest. This is why he gets his long rest during regular season along with D-Fish so they'll be fresh come playoff time like tonight.
3-1 lead. Close out game Sunday night in Orlando. I kind of want Lakers to lose so they can close it out on Tuesday but I want them to end it in Orlando too. I'll make my prediction sometime in the next two days. Look at this statistic, Lakers are 7-0 now in games after losses so far this playoffs. An amazing number. After every loss, Lakers have responded with a strong performance and win.
15 down, just 1 down for the destination. It has been a long journey and it will end in the next few days. I predicted the game 4 win.
Go Lakers!! 1 more win...
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