NBA Finals: Lakers vs. Magic

The NBA season presses on.

Phil Jackson will be pursuing his 10th and record-breaking NBA title (currently tied at 9 titles with Red Auerbach) and Kobe Bryant will be looking for his 4th ring and his first one without Shaquille O'Neal.

But standing in the way of the Lakers is the Orlando Magic. The Magic are a free-shooting team with a lot of depth. Orlando went 2-0 vs. L.A. during the regular season ... why does that matter now? Just ask the Cleveland Cavaliers who went 1-2 against the Magic during the regular season and just lost to Orlando in 6 games.

This should prove to be an entertaining series as both teams feature high-powered offenses.

Key match-up:

Dwight Howard vs. the Lakers Bigs: L.A. (as we know) features Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, and Andrew Bynum. The Lakers bigs could and should have a great series as they will create match-up problems for the Magic down low. Orlando likes to use Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu at the power and small forward positions, so Stan Van Gundy will have his work cut out for him deciding how to cover Bynum and Gasol.

When Odom enters the game ... the Magic will match-up better defensively as Lewis can cover Odom and Howard can focus on Gasol.

Should be an entertaining series and I'm not even going to get into predicting who is going to win it. It'll be very difficult for L.A. to stop Orlando's momentum, but having home-court will be to the Lakers advantage.

Follow the home blogs here:

Lakers: Silver Screen and Roll

Magic: Third Quarter Collapse