Los Angeles-Orlando: Notes on the Lakers Magic Series

Before the first game was played there were a lot of predictions about what would happen in this series.  Now that the first game has been played let’s look at some of those predictions and how they played out in game one.   Dwight Howard will dominate inside   Dwight Howard has been hyped as perhaps the greatest post player in the NBA.  Some pundits had him dominating the Laker big men and shutting down the Lakers in the post. What actually happened was that Howard was revealed as having a very limited inside game.  When Bynum was on the court Howard was completely unable to get to the basket.  In fact Howard was completely over matched by Bynum when the young center was on the court.  Howard was slightly more effective against Gasol but the swarming Laker defense limited him to one-of-six shooting. To his credit Dwight Howard was the most effective rebounder in the game but even that is more reflective of his being the only player on his ... (link)