Kobe gets fourth ring, Jackson gets 10th
Kobe gets fourth ring, Jackson gets 10th
The Lakers put the finishing touches on their 15th NBA title with a 99-86 win over Orlando in Game 5 on Sunday. What's next for Kobe Bryant, Phil Jackson and the rest of the Purple & Gold?
It was just like the betting odds said it would be.
The Los Angeles Lakers opened the 2008-09 NBA season as 3-1 favorites to win the championship after getting embarrassed by the Boston Celtics in the 2008 Finals. And that’s exactly how it went down. The Lakers pulled away from the Orlando Magic in the second quarter of Sunday’s Game 5 showdown at the Amway Arena, winning the game 99-86 as 3½-point road dogs and winning the series in five games. Cha-ching.
It’s the stuff that happened in between that didn’t go as expected. The Cleveland Cavaliers opened as 15-1 favorites to take the title, but the longer the season went, the shorter their odds became. With LeBron James (27.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.9 assists per 36 minutes) putting together an MVP campaign, the Cavs were even money by the time they wrapped up their monster regular season at 66-16 SU and 50-32 ATS. Then they swept through the first two rounds of the playoffs at 7-0-1 ATS.
That’s where the Magic spoiled the hotly anticipated matchup between James and the man he unseated for the MVP crown, Kobe Bryant (26.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.9 assists per 36). Orlando was certainly no tomato can after finishing the regular season on top of the Southeast Division at 59-23 SU and 49-32-1 ATS. And the Magic posed a specific matchup problem for the Cavs: None of their four bigs could defend Dwight Howard.
The Lakers didn’t have that problem. Andrew Bynum wasn’t nearly as healthy and productive at the end of the season as he was at the beginning; however, he did step into Howard’s grill and provide many of the fouls that sent the big man to the free-throw line, where he shot 35-of-58 (60.3 percent) to match his usual success rate. Meanwhile, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom had the size and mobility to step up against both Howard and Rashard Lewis, who shot 8-of-24 from long range over the last three games of the series at the O-Rena. L.A. covered all three of them.
The biggest headlines for the Finals were reserved for Bryant and Lakers head coach Phil Jackson. Bryant was named the Finals MVP for the first time in his career after scoring 32.4 points, 7.4 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game during the series. As for Jackson, the Zen Master now has 10 NBA titles on his resume, breaking Red Auerbach’s record of nine. They’re all expected back for more in 2010; the Lakers are once again 3-1 favorites at the open, ahead of Cleveland at 9-2 and Orlando at 5-1.
Auerbach’s old team got lost in the shuffle this year. The Celtics defended their championship with pride in the face of adversity. Boston held onto first place in the Atlantic at 62-20 (43-39 ATS) and looked like a strong possibility to meet the Lakers yet again in the Finals. That’s when the team learned that Kevin Garnett would be out for the playoffs because his strained knee wasn’t healing well enough. The C’s escaped an epic first-round series with the Chicago Bulls before falling to the Magic in seven. The promise of getting Garnett back into the mix for 2009-10 is enough to keep the Celtics in elite company at 6-1 to regain the championship.
The common thread running through these four teams was defense. They were four of the top five teams in the league this season (the Houston Rockets were the fifth) in terms of defensive efficiency, and the under was a big money pick for both the Cavs (45-36-1) and the Magic (46-36). Howard is the 2008-09 Defensive Player of the Year, supplanting Garnett. James and Bryant join them on the NBA All-Defensive team. If defense wins championships, then these four teams deserve to be at the top of the odds list for 2010.
The Lakers put the finishing touches on their 15th NBA title with a 99-86 win over Orlando in Game 5 on Sunday. What's next for Kobe Bryant, Phil Jackson and the rest of the Purple & Gold?
It was just like the betting odds said it would be.
The Los Angeles Lakers opened the 2008-09 NBA season as 3-1 favorites to win the championship after getting embarrassed by the Boston Celtics in the 2008 Finals. And that’s exactly how it went down. The Lakers pulled away from the Orlando Magic in the second quarter of Sunday’s Game 5 showdown at the Amway Arena, winning the game 99-86 as 3½-point road dogs and winning the series in five games. Cha-ching.
It’s the stuff that happened in between that didn’t go as expected. The Cleveland Cavaliers opened as 15-1 favorites to take the title, but the longer the season went, the shorter their odds became. With LeBron James (27.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.9 assists per 36 minutes) putting together an MVP campaign, the Cavs were even money by the time they wrapped up their monster regular season at 66-16 SU and 50-32 ATS. Then they swept through the first two rounds of the playoffs at 7-0-1 ATS.
That’s where the Magic spoiled the hotly anticipated matchup between James and the man he unseated for the MVP crown, Kobe Bryant (26.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.9 assists per 36). Orlando was certainly no tomato can after finishing the regular season on top of the Southeast Division at 59-23 SU and 49-32-1 ATS. And the Magic posed a specific matchup problem for the Cavs: None of their four bigs could defend Dwight Howard.
The Lakers didn’t have that problem. Andrew Bynum wasn’t nearly as healthy and productive at the end of the season as he was at the beginning; however, he did step into Howard’s grill and provide many of the fouls that sent the big man to the free-throw line, where he shot 35-of-58 (60.3 percent) to match his usual success rate. Meanwhile, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom had the size and mobility to step up against both Howard and Rashard Lewis, who shot 8-of-24 from long range over the last three games of the series at the O-Rena. L.A. covered all three of them.
The biggest headlines for the Finals were reserved for Bryant and Lakers head coach Phil Jackson. Bryant was named the Finals MVP for the first time in his career after scoring 32.4 points, 7.4 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game during the series. As for Jackson, the Zen Master now has 10 NBA titles on his resume, breaking Red Auerbach’s record of nine. They’re all expected back for more in 2010; the Lakers are once again 3-1 favorites at the open, ahead of Cleveland at 9-2 and Orlando at 5-1.
Auerbach’s old team got lost in the shuffle this year. The Celtics defended their championship with pride in the face of adversity. Boston held onto first place in the Atlantic at 62-20 (43-39 ATS) and looked like a strong possibility to meet the Lakers yet again in the Finals. That’s when the team learned that Kevin Garnett would be out for the playoffs because his strained knee wasn’t healing well enough. The C’s escaped an epic first-round series with the Chicago Bulls before falling to the Magic in seven. The promise of getting Garnett back into the mix for 2009-10 is enough to keep the Celtics in elite company at 6-1 to regain the championship.
The common thread running through these four teams was defense. They were four of the top five teams in the league this season (the Houston Rockets were the fifth) in terms of defensive efficiency, and the under was a big money pick for both the Cavs (45-36-1) and the Magic (46-36). Howard is the 2008-09 Defensive Player of the Year, supplanting Garnett. James and Bryant join them on the NBA All-Defensive team. If defense wins championships, then these four teams deserve to be at the top of the odds list for 2010.
