Game 3: A Night Of Firsts And Lasts

It's funny. People all day long have been asking me about last night. Everyone figures I'm my normal ornery self after a playoff loss-- angry, frustrated, and generally not fun to be around. Today wasn't like that. I've never been more satisfied with a loss before. If the Magic have to shoot an NBA record 63% and need Kobe Bryant to play one of his worst fourth quarters of his career to win by only four points, I will take it.

I knew coming into this series that a guy like Rafer Alston was going to have one game in the series where he got it going. Last night: 4-4, 11 points in the first quarter. That set the tone for the whole game. Mickael Pietrus followed that with 18 points off the bench, hitting ridiculous fallaways and stupid running floaters.

The Magic have yet to solve the Gasol-Odom combo and I think Kobe needs to work to get them the ball a little bit more. I'm really not concerned at all right now; I am convinced the Lakers will win AT LEAST one of these next two. This series will be over in 5 or 6.

Never again will Kobe falter as he did in Game 3 and never again will the Magic shoot as well as they did. Because of those points, I'm happy. Game 3 further sulidified in my mind that LA is the better team.