Nick Adenhart & Lakers/Magic

Yesterday, in front of the lone survivor within the car that was struck by drunken driver Andrew Thomas Gallo, the parents, family, and friends of the deceased and the lone survivor watched teary eyed Gallo as he pleaded "not guilty" to three counts of murder along with 3 other lesser charges. Gallo sat behind some sort of protection box as he looked on to his lawyer and family. This is Gallo's last cry to somehow protect himself from prosecution. Is it sad that he pleaded "not guilty"? It certainly is, but in reality at this point he has nothing to lose because either way he is going away for the rest of his life. 

His lawyer made another desperate attempt to have the trial moved out of Orange County, Cali. because he felt there would be too much bias. Well, no shit McFly. Anywhere he goes there will be bias because this idiot killed 3 young kids and left the survivor with an injury called "internal decapitation" and he somehow is on his way to recovery, luckily. I feel no remorse for this imbecile. I mean his BAC was over 3 times the legal limit, and then he tried to run from the scene! I wonder if he remembers any of this, most likely not. He probably still has a horrible hang over. A hang over that has left 3 dead and one with his spine detached from his skull and 5 families, including Gallo's, that have to live without their precious sons and daughters for the rest of time. Sickening. 

On a softer note, the Magic pulled of what I considered a must win last night over the Lakers. The Magic torched the Lakers in the first half shooting 75% from the floor (NBA Record) and 62.5% for the game (NBA Record). Alot of people are saying that this is now a series, which is true, but for Stan Van Gundy and his Magic, I would not feel anymore comfortable as I did before being down 2-0. They shot their way into the record books by consistently making shots all over the floor and only taking a unfathomable 14 3-point attempts.

There are two things on the box score that jump out at me and none of them include the performance of the Lakers bigs Gasol, Bynum, and Odom. Reporters were dwelling on the fact that between them they only had 9 rebounds. Well when a team shoots over 60% from the floor, there are not that many rebounds to be had. The thing that jumps out at me is the fact that the Lakers were 16-26 from the charity stripe to 23-30 from the Magic. You MUST make free throws to win games, end of story. I have been a part of games on both sides where teams have made or missed free throws, not just down the stretch, but the entire game and the outcome was conducive to this fact. The other thing has been a consistent problem for the Magic: Dwight Howard. Throughout the playoffs, it was Gasol not getting enough touches, now its Howard. I don't care if he went 11-16 from the free throw line. Lets say out of those 16 free throws he got fouled on 8 shot attempts. That is still only 14 attempts from the floor - Simply not enough. What baffles me even more is that they only attempted 14 threes! If that continues to be the case Dwight needs more touches or this game will simply be a small bug bite on the Lakers way to their 15th NBA title.

This game was a fluke, I'll state that. Kobe will come back with a more consistent performance and he certainly will not miss 5 free throws again (I bet he doesn't miss a total of 5 for the rest of the series). The Magic will not shoot 62.5% from the floor again because Phil Jackson will refocus his squad and get them playing D again and teams in the NBA Finals simply do not shoot that well consistently. If the Magic feel they have a chance, they better hope to shoot 70% in the next game because the Lakers are ready. 

Lakers in 5.

Until next time...