Putting Game 1 aside for a moment, you can say what you want about Courtney Lee making that inbound layup from (essentially) behind the backboard in Game 2, or Kobe Bryant's field shooting woes in Game 3, or Jameer Nelson not meeting Derek Fisher outside of the three point line and forcing him to drive the bucket last night but really these three games come down to essentially the same thing:. I mean, of course down stretch of the fourth quarter and overtime of Game 4 the Magic could not defensively rebound the basketball to save my life (almost literally), but these games come down to one key statistical area: free throw shooting.
If you know anything about my personal philosophy on basketball, I think that on a game by game basis I think rebounding is the single most important indicitator of winning. However, I cannot overlook the fact that the team that lost had an opproutnity to close out the game from the free throw line. In Game 2, before Courtney Lee had the chance to win it at the buzzer, the Magic had ample opportunity to score from the line and did not capitalize. In Game 3, Kobe and Krewl were abismal from the free throw line, and then again last night the Magic had a ton of chances from the line in the fourth (and I do not just mean Dwight Howard's two misses to keep LA in it). To prove my point, I will take you through this game by game
GAME DOS
The fourth quarter of Game 2 opened with the Magic inbounding the ball up by 2. On the first possession of the quarter, Jameer Nelson draws a shooting foul from my favorite Laker, Shannon Brown. Jameer steps up to the line and promptly misses two free throws. For the Game, the Magic shot 20/27 for a 74.1% clip. Here's the kicker, Dwight Howard was 7/9 for a 77.777 (and so on) performance. Take Dwight's FTs away, and the other Magicians shot only 72ish%. For their part, the Lakeshow 24 of their 28 (85.7%)
In the fourth, Dwight Howard was 4-4 from the line. Jameer missed the aforementioned two, Hedo Turkoglu was 1-2, and Rashard Lewis was 2-2. The only Laker to get to the line in the last period of regulation for the Lakers was Kobe. He stepped to the line and made 7 – 8. So, let's do the proverbial math. The Magic were a combined 7 – 10 and the Lakers were 7 – 8. Doesn't seem that bad right? Well, maybe not until you realize that all the Magic's FT attempts were shooting fouls. What does that mean? By missing free throws, the Magic were giving up offensive possessions. So on 5 possessions, the Magic got a total of 7 points. Kobe went to the line on 4 possessions, and came away with the same number of points. That's a turnover that does not show up in the stats right there. It's as if, instead of throwing the ball to Courtney Lee on that last second play, Turkoglu threw the ball off Kobe and the Magic got no look at the basket at all.
In OT, Pau Gasol (5/5), Fisher (2/2) and Odom (2/2) combined perfection from the line. The Magic made their only attempt in OT, one by Howard on a hoop and the harm, but it wasn't enough. To Recap, in the 4th and OT, The Magic were 8/11 and the Lakers were 16/17. I think you can see the connection.
In Chapelle Show Terms: Game – Blouses.
Game 3
Throughout the course of this game, the Lakers missed 10 free throws (16/26, 61.5%). Orlando was 76.7% at 23-30. Kobe was 5-10 by himself, which was great for my physical health.
In the fourth quarter of this game, the Magic combined to miss one free throw. Howard (2/2), Mickael Pietrus (4/4), Turk (2/2), Rafer Alston (1/2) and Lewis (2/2) provided the Magic with the support from the line needed for victory. Twelve times a Magic man walked to the line and eleven times he dropped in a bucket (that's a 91.6% efficiency). The Lakers didn't shoot terribly, Odom (2/4), Gasol (2/2), and Bryant (1/2) only got to the line 8 times and came away with 5 points.
With 5:55 left in the collision, Gasol dropped in a hook shot to pull the Lakers to within 3. On the ensuing possession, Howard went to the line and knocked down two bit FT's, Magic by 5. Then Fisher hit a 3 for the lakers, Magic by 2. Then Pietrus came down the floor, got to the line, and knocked them both down, Magic by 4. Then Odom made a two point bucket and Turkoglu responded with two more freebies. Magic by 4 with 4:36 left. In a back and forth and crucial part of the game, the Magic stepped to the line and were 6/6. When it looked like the Lakers had all the momentum, Turk, Pietrus and Dwight were able to keep the Magic from giving it all away. The Lakers could have pulled even or ahead if the Magic missed these pressure ones.
Game 4
For the game, the Magic were an abysmal 59.5% (22/37) while the Lakers did their job and made 15 of their 20 attempts (75.0%). Finally, Dwight Howard showed his shooting woes by being 6/14 (not good%). Even without Howard pulling the percentage down, the team was 69.5%. When you remove the stats of your "bad guy", you have to do better than that. I don't mean to give Dwight a free pass, but I am kind of going to. Look, the guy has banged down his FT's throughout this series and the Conference Finals. There was going to be a night when he didn't and it happened to be last night and NO ONE picked him up. The guy set a finals record for blocks in a game last night and was 1 short of a trip/dub (or triple-double for those of you not down with the lingo). Dwight is going to miss free throws it's what he does. If he had one of his free ones at the end of the fourth quarter, sure, the game would have ended differently but… he didn't and I cannot blame superman for not hitting his from the line when no one else did. I can't blame him when he picked the team up in almost every other way, and no one picked him up there.
Here's another reason I cannot blame him. In the last of regulation, Dwight was 3/5. Sure he missed two, and sure they were the biggest two of his life so far, but despite a terrible night from the line up to that point, he knocked down his first three. And here's another, as a team, the Magic were 10/17 with Howard's numbers – 58.8%. Lewis did not make an appearance at the line, and give Pietrus credit, he was 4/5. Turk was the cluprit. Not the put the whole game on his shoulders, but he has to be better. For the quarter, he was 3/7 (42.8%). Here's the worst part. With 5:05 left in the quarter, Turk stepped to the line with the Magic down 1. From when Turkoglu walked to the line to the end of regulation, he shot 4 free throws making a whooping 1. 1 for proverbial 4. I think you can do that math for yourself.
I don't even need to talk about what the Lakers did this game. All I need to say is that the Magic lost and they are on the brink of elimination.
This article appears in Jun 10-16, 2009.