This Season’s Matchups The Magic made L.A. pay for not giving its best effort on separate occasions in December and January, using late three-pointers in both contests to claim the season series 2-0 as both Sasha Vujacic and Kobe Bryant missed final-second threes that would have won and tied the respective games. In the process, the Magic joined only one other team – the Charlotte Bobcats – to suffer not a single loss against the 65-win Lakers in the regular season. However, L.A. wasn’t healthy in either game, as Jordan Farmar missed both and Luke Walton the second game, forcing Derek Fisher to play over 40 minutes on each occasion. Shannon Brown was not yet on the team, and L.A. had no other options for Nelson other than Vujacic. Here’s a closer look at the two contests, complete with links to each Gameday page featuring postgame and running diary links, box scores, numbers and more. Magic 109, Lakers 103 - January 16 @ STAPLES: Just two days after suffering a last-second loss in San Antonio, the Lakers again fell victim to an opponent’s last-minute heroics as Jameer Nelson’s second three-pointer in the final 1:26 ultimately spelled L.A.’s doom. Kobe Bryant had a chance to tie the game on a terrific look from three with 10.1 seconds left on the clock, but rimmed out for the ninth time in 12 fourth quarter shots, putting a damper on his 15th career triple-double. Magic 106, Lakers 103 – December 20 @ Amway Arena: A night after Kobe Bryant’s game-tying attempt rimmed out in Miami, Sasha Vujacic rimmed out on a potential game-winning three pointer in Orlando seconds before the final buzzer. Jameer Nelson led the Magic with 27 points on 4-of-6 from three to help Orlando overcome a then season-high 41 points from Bryant and 27 points from Derek Fisher, playing big minutes in the absence of the injured Jordan Farmar. FINALS SCHEDULE WALLPAPER Regular: 1024x768 | 1280x1024 Widescreen: 1440x900 | 1920x1200 Lakers Courtside Connection Scouting Reports

After 65 regular season wins, three playoff series victories over the collectively rugged Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets, the trophy has come into L.A.’s view just over the horizon.

Twelve down and four to go.

Some questionable losses mixed into the Lakers’ run through the West, but ultimately, the purple and gold won when it needed to, utilizing a style of basketball that deployed many of their considerable weapons that ultimately came together in a demonstrative 119-92 road blowout over Denver to seal the Western Conference Finals in six games.

With Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol orchestrating the attack with pretty ball movement out of the triangle offense and an active team defense that forced a bevy of outside jumpers, the Lakers showed why they were the preseason favorite to at least earn a rematch with the Boston Celtics. But when Kevin Garnett went down, and as Cleveland cruised to 66 regular season wins (even if they had trouble beating the league’s best teams, including L.A.) many were waiting for a Kobe – LeBron showdown.

No one told the Orlando Magic.

After defeating the Philadelphia 76ers in six games, it took Orlando seven to defeat the defending champion Celtics and six to bury Cleveland, winning twice on the road in both Philly and Boston before earning the Eastern Conference trophy at home. Like a dove out of a magician’s hat, the secret on the Magic is officially out: They’re good.

L.A. got a hint of that in the regular season as Orlando joined Charlotte as the only NBA teams not to lose to the Lakers in the regular season, winning close games that came down to key three pointers from the now-injured Jameer Nelson, who hasn’t played in months. But the Lakers aren’t thinking too much about the regular season not just because Orlando’s playing better ball, but because despite 65 wins L.A. clearly didn’t bring its A-game every night … And who in the NBA could? More pointedly, the Lakers may not have respected Orlando as they did Boston, Cleveland or San Antonio in the regular season … But they do now.

The matchup is intriguing for the Lakers, particularly because of the unique style of the Magic, which features a true outside-in system boasting very good three-point shooters surrounding the exceedingly physical Dwight Howard. Their system proved too much for Cleveland, but there’s one major difference between the Cavs and Lakers: L.A. has three big men - Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom - that can individually attack Howard on defense, and two seven footers - if not three (Bynum, Gasol, D.J. Mbenga) - that will play him straight up on defense and force him to play on-ball defense, which isn’t Howard’s favorite thing to do.

Aside from that fact that L.A. has the best player in Bryant, who’s always the biggest key from a macro perspective, whoever wins that battle of the paint will likely control the Finals. In facing Philly, Boston and Cleveland, Orlando saw no offensive talent like Pau Gasol, no 7-footer as offensively gifted as Andrew Bynum and just one forward with more ability than Lamar Odom. That would be LeBron James, and he had no one to set him up as Odom will.

Furthermore, while Rashard Lewis makes it tough on most opposing fours with his perimeter nature, L.A. feels that Pau Gasol can use his length to stay with Lewis on defense and his size to attack him on the block at the other. That was a major matchup advantage for Orlando against Cleveland, but the Cavs didn’t have the ability to abuse Lewis on the defensive end as L.A. will, nor did they have a guy like Odom to come off the bench and match up quite well with Lewis. Meanwhile, Trevor Ariza will try to limit the very effective Hedo Turkoglu, and Mickael Pietrus has been playing fantastic off the bench will demand attention as well.

Perhaps more important than all of the matchup talk and coming superfluous analysis is this fact: Every time L.A. needed a win, throughout the entire season, it was able to come through. That didn’t change in Utah (Game 4), against Houston (Games 3, 5 and 7) or Denver (Games 3, 5 and 6), and there’s no reason to think it won’t continue in the NBA Finals.

Following is a complete position-by-position breakdown of the matchups, a podcast with Lakers advance scout Rasheed Hazzard upon his return trip from scouting Orlando, and a review of L.A.’s journey through the Western playoffs.

Scouting Report
Lakers Advance Scout Rasheed Hazzard spent the past couple weeks bouncing between Cleveland and Orlando for the Eastern Conference Finals, all the while reporting back to the Lakers coaching staff and keeping them apprised of each team's strengths and weaknesses. We caught up with him to talk about the Magic and how they matchup with the Lakers.

Position-by-Position Breakdown
Here’s a look at the matchups from point guard to the bench.

Magic: When Jameer Nelson went down with a torn labrum on Feb. 2 just after being elected to the Eastern Conference All-Star team, many thought the Orlando Magic would be done for the season, that Boston or Cleveland’s path to the Finals was written in stone. But the Magic moved quickly to acquire Rafer Alston from the Houston Rockets, and Skip To My Lou has been very effective in the playoffs, going for 12.7 points, 4.4 assists, 2.5 boards and 1.6 steals in 32.9 minutes on 38.3 percent shooting and 35.1 from three. Alston is at his best if he’s able to penetrate and kick to open shooters spread across the three-point line, and while he’s not known to be a great shooter, he was very effective particularly when Cleveland left him wide open (see Game 4). On the other hand, Alston can be a bit of a liability on the ball defensively, and isn’t big enough to disturb Fisher’s shooting, is no longer as fast as Farmar and may have trouble physically with Shannon Brown. Meanwhile, there’s been some speculation regarding a possible return for Nelson, but L.A. won’t prepare any differently for that potential occurrence, and instead will try and take care of Anthony Johnson’s 14.7 minutes per game.

Lakers: In the Western Conference Playoffs, Derek Fisher averaged 7.1 points with 2.4 assists, 1.8 rebounds, 0.88 steals and 1.2 turnovers in 26.8 minutes on 35.6 percent shooting from the field, 23.5 percent from three and 83.3 from the line. It doesn’t need to be written that Fisher struggled with his shot – thanks Captain Obvious – but he did start to find his touch as the Denver series went on, making 6-of-11 shots in L.A.’s final two wins and scoring 12 points in Game 5, 10 in the first half. Yet Fisher’s impact on the Lakers can be better determined outside of the numbers, highlighted by an in-game speech in Game 3 in Denver, the toughness he showed against Houston and his ability to get to the right spots on offense that stretch the floor for teammates even when he’s missing his shot. Defensively, Fisher will have to use his Aaron-Brooks-training to stay in front of Orlando’s Rafer Alston, but he may also see time on rookie Courtney Lee. A major difference here from the regular season point guard battle is that Fisher won’t have to play anywhere near the 41 minutes he averaged against the Magic, since Jordan Farmar was out of both games with a knee injury and Shannon Brown was playing for the Bobcats. Advantage: Lakers – It’s not so much about an individual edge between veterans Fisher and Alston, but L.A.’s flexibility at the position. While Orlando’s point guards are in to fulfill a specific role of moving the ball and hitting an open shot, L.A. can throw three entirely different looks at the Magic, two of which Orlando did not see in the regular season. As long as the Lakers respect Alston enough not to give him the open looks that LeBron James conceded, they have a good chance of winning this matchup.

Magic: Courtney Lee certainly hasn’t played like a rookie in the postseason, averaging 8.8 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.00 steals in 21.8 minutes on 45.1 percent from the field and 30.3 percent from three. Lee’s shown himself to be capable at both hitting an open shot and driving to the hoop and finishing, and he’s been a bright surprise at the defensive end. That said, going up against Kobe Bryant is quite a different story from Delonte West and Mo Williams of the Cavs. Lee started against the Cleveland, but J.J. Redick got the nod against the Celtics in Round 2 in part due to Lee’s nose injury; meanwhile, Mickael Pietrus plays nearly as many minutes. It’s Pietrus, who did as good a job on LeBron James as anybody, who will often be charged with limiting Kobe Bryant. Still, if Orlando’s to win, he and Lee will need to find a way to put points on the board from the shooting guard position, which didn’t happen in the regular season due in part to Jameer Nelson’s scoring.

Lakers: Kobe Bryant’s numbers don’t tell the story of how outstanding his playoff performance has been at both ends of the floor, but they aren’t all that bad: 29.6 points (2nd in the NBA); 5.3 rebounds; 4.9 assists (team high); 1.72 steals (team high); and 0.78 blocks in 40.1 minutes on 46.6 percent from the field, 34.6 from three and 89.5 from the line. What was perhaps most impressive was Kobe’s dogged consistency of effort, which at times (Game 4 @ Utah, Game 3 @ Houston, Game 3 @ Denver or Games 5 and 6 stand out) saw him literally carry his teammates across the finish line through a smattering of points, assists, steals and hounding defense. Bryant’s basketball mind showed itself most clearly in the final two games of the Western Conference Finals, when he simply busted Denver’s defense in his head and picked it apart at will, utilizing the triangle at his leisure. While Courtney Lee’s a capable defender, he has no experience facing the league’s most talented all-around offensive player, and will need considerable help not just from the team defense, but from Mickael Pietrus off the bench, who’s probably the best one-on-one matchup for Bryant. The Lakers will also look for Sasha Vujacic to pick up his 28.2 three-point shooting, especially after the Slovenian showed signs late in the Nuggets series … Yet L.A.’s coaches are fully confident in Vujacic’s ability to chase three-point shooters, which he did successfully in each of the first three rounds (Kyle Korver, Von Wafer and J.R. Smith). Advantage: Lakers - Kobe’s on a singular mission.

Magic: The NBA’s Most Improved Player last season, Hedo Turkoglu continued his solid play in 2008-09, particularly in the playoffs where he’s averaged 15.2 points, a team-high 5.1 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 0.74 steals in 38.3 minutes on 41 percent shooting and 37.3 from three. His ability to hit clutch shots was personally witnessed by Philadelphia and Boston, while his potential game-winner in Game 2 (1.0 seconds left) against Cleveland was negated only by LeBron James’ buzzer-beating three pointer. Still, Turkoglu’s most valuable skill to his team is his playmaking, thanks to his unique combination of ball-handling and height (6-10) that helps him look over the top of defenses. Defensively, Turkoglu isn’t bad despite not being the fleetest of foot, but he’ll have to respect the ball handling of whichever Laker he’s on, which will be Ariza to start but could include Bryant at times as well as Luke Walton and Lamar Odom. When Turkoglu hits the bench, Lewis can slide down into his spot with Tony Battie occupying the power forward position, or Pietrus can slide up from the two, but Turk isn’t off the floor for long. Advantage:: Magic – While Ariza’s improvement has been a major boost for the Lakers, Turkoglu’s all-around game and ability in the clutch separate him at this position.

Lakers: Trevor Ariza, who came to L.A. courtesy of Orlando, was flat out terrific against the Denver Nuggets, averaging 12.3 points (third on team), 3.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.83 steals in 29.0 minutes on impressive 58.1 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent from three. Those numbers aren’t too far ahead of his averages throughout the playoffs, and as such, it’s easy to say that Ariza’s seen the biggest raise in his game from the regular season to the postseason. That’s without crediting his defense, which against Orlando will be particularly important due to the skill level of Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis. Indeed, Ariza’s length and quickness should immediately make Turkoglu have to work far harder than he did against the much smaller Delonte West in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Lakers can also throw Sasha Vujacic, Lamar Odom, Luke Walton (who saved his best for Game 6 vs. Denver) or even Kobe Bryant at Hedo. Ariza also showed the ability to put the ball on the floor and take it to the hoop from the wing, which Cleveland didn’t have, and Walton gives L.A. another solid mover of the ball on offense and a guy who recognizes the importance of attacking Dwight Howard with big men.

Magic: Rashard Lewis was terrific in the Eastern Conference Finals particularly and solid throughout the first three rounds, averaging 19.4 points, 6.1 boards, 2.6 assist and 1.11 steals in a team-high 40.7 minutes on 46 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from three (36-of-92). Lewis hit the huge three to secure Game 1 in Cleveland for his team, and another in Game 4 to secure the series’ advantage, and must not be left alone by Gasol, Odom or Ariza. Lewis took 34 percent of his shots from three-point range, which is actually well down from the regular season, when 50.1 percent of his shots came from three, as he’s shown the ability to score from mid range and at times at the rim. While Lewis is most comfortable stretching the floor on the perimeter – which will be important in pulling Gasol away from the rim – he can’t be content only with jumpers. It’s rare that Lewis is on the bench, but when he is, Turkoglu can slide up to the four, or Tony Battie will come off the bench to bang and stick elbow jumpers.

Lakers: Like Bryant, Pau Gasol’s effectiveness in the 2008-09 Playoffs aren’t completely told through his numbers, which are certainly outstanding: 18.2 points; 11.3 rebounds (team high); 2.6 assists; 2.0 blocks and 0.83 steals in 39.9 minutes, on 57.4 percent from the field (2nd in the NBA). The bottom line with Gasol on offense is that he’s remarkable effective either as a scorer or as a facilitator, depending on if the other team chooses to double team him. Generally he is doubled, which gives L.A. two All-Stars demanding constant attention. Just as importantly, Gasol has picked up his defense considerably, shown most clearly by the doubling of his blocks per game from one in the regular season to two, plus an increase in his board work from 9.6 to 11.3. The Magic have seen Anderson Varejao, Glen Davis and Thaddeus Young at the power forward spots in rounds 1-3; surely Gasol is a different beast entirely. And that’s without mentioning Lamar Odom, the series’ best player off the bench, who after struggling with a back injury was terrific in the final two games of the Denver series, and will have a full six days rest. Orlando doesn’t have a player with Odom’s versatility, which L.A. must deploy at the Magic front court. Advantage: Lakers – Gasol alone would be enough to put L.A. over the top even against Lewis, who was an All-Star, but Lamar Odom’s inclusion into the mix makes it an easy decision.

Magic: Dwight Howard has lived up to the high expectations demanded by his exceptional combination of size, speed and strength by averaging 21.7 points, 15.4 rebounds (playoff high), 2.22 blocks and 1.8 assists in 38.3 minutes on 62.2 percent shooting (playoff high) alongside 64.7 percent from the line. However, when faced with a tough interior matchup like Kendrick Perkins in the Eastern Semifinals, Howard scored only 16.4 points a game, and can be controlled if pushed away from the basket. Cleveland didn’t have the personnel to do so, and Howard ate the Cavs up for 25.8 points. Defensively, Howard can be prone to foul trouble, and will have to watch himself against the Lakers, who not only boast three players that would be close to if not the top low-post scorer on Philly, Boston or Cleveland but also possess wing players that can attack the rim, namely Kobe Bryant and Trevor Ariza. Howard has a very tall task, literally and figuratively, with the Lakers, and how well he holds up will be a major factor in the series. Advantage: Magic - Orlando, based on Howard’s edge over the still-getting-it-back Bynum, though Howard must do far more than Bynum for his team to succeed as a group.

Lakers: The most important thing that Andrew Bynum discovered somewhere in the Houston series was that for L.A. to play at its most successful level, he’d need to be a defensive force in the paint. And that he was, which could be seen late in the second round and particularly against Denver almost whenever he was on the floor. It wasn’t so much the 1.33 blocks per game against the Nuggets, but the fact that Denver wanted no part in attacking the rim when ‘Drew was holding court, even if for only 19.8 minutes per game. Certainly, Dwight Howard provides a stiff challenge on the defensive end, and Bynum’s ability to guard him straight up while avoiding serious foul trouble could go a long way into making a short series. He won’t be alone, with Gasol and D.J. Mbenga also capable of banging with Howard, but surely Bynum is the best option. Furthermore, despite his pedestrian average of 6.3 points at the other end, L.A. would be wise to deploy Bynum’s offensive skills directly at Howard, who’s wary of foul trouble and can be put into vulnerable positions when teams go straight at him, especially early in games.