Best Advertisement – Mark Jackson plugging the movies Menace II Society, Friday and Finding Nemo, which are the favorite titles of Orlando’s Dwight Howard. Jackson was giving Howard a hard time over the air about the last selection, laughing at how choked-up the big fella got while talking about the animated flick about a fish. Bonus material came when Van Gundy asked “What’s Friday, by the way?”

Makes Me Wonder – Why the hell the Stanley Cup Finals are on at the same time and on the same night as the NBA Finals. To be honest, I could care less about the sport in the first place. But I could be tempted to tune in to the final series of the season, and who knows, maybe find it interesting going into next year. Too bad about the schedule conflict. Maybe I fall out of the league’s targeted demographic.

For Stats Sake – Orlando was led by their big-three as Dwight Howard had 21 points, 14 rebounds; Hedo Turkoglu 18 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds; and Rashard Lewis 21 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 three-pointers. Bryant tallied 31 points and 8 assists, but despite hitting 4 three-pointers had 4 turnovers and went 5-for-10 at the line. Gasol finished with 23 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks for the Lakers.

        

–– Further Analysis from the Joint Contrast Crew ––

== Says J.C. – The first NBA Finals win for the Orlando Magic happened to come in their seventh NBA Finals game. Ironically, the Magic moved to 7-0 all-time after that little girl that sang the National Anthem on Tuesday does so in front of the home crowd. It’s a true stat. And her story is quite interesting. But about the game… the thing is, once fans (fair-weathered and faithful) sober up after partying like it was 1995, they’ll brace for the reality that Game 4 is an even bigger deal than Game 3 was. All I know is the longer this thing plays out Magic fans will continue to pop up everywhere I turn. They’re selling pennants and hats at gas stations, bootleg T-shirts at the corner of every other intersection, and they’ve got people who’ve never seen a basketball bounce before talking day and night about this team. Maybe that’s the beauty about pro sports in Orlando. When the only team in town is on top nobody really notices (or cares) how much you didn’t give a damn beforehand.

== Says Ray-Ray – Dwight’s mama must have taught him how to share while growing up because it looked like the whole damn team got their vitamins before tonight’s game. What a magical game it was for Orlando. And how bad does that suck for me, being an L.A. fan? Well pretty damn bad after seeing as how the outcome this time around was a loss. Rasheed Wallace always said that “the ball don’t lie.” So, Mr. Ball God, I am here to apologize for whatever it was the Lakers did wrong. You can even ask the Spade God, I’m not that bad a guy. Well, I’ve done some very bad things, but usually with good intentions. Shit, it seemed to work for that Robin Hood fella. Either way, congrats to the Magic franchise on their first-ever Finals win. But do they have three more record-breaking shooting performances in them like they did tonight?

== Says Steve P. – Five players over 18 points! That’s incredible team basketball, Magic. The scary thing for them is that they played that good and still almost lost. Great game though. So many players on both teams played near-perfect ball tonight. Pau Gasol is a certified badass! He’s confusing Dwight Howard on the defensive end and it seemed like he couldn’t miss, totally using anyone who was guarding him. How can you not root for Rafer Alston? And 1 team to the NBA finals? He’s living his dream, and playing huge. Mark Jackson rapping Jigga lyrics was good stuff: “Go inside the booth/take off the tie/superman is alive.”

== Says TimS – Seriously, a 9 p.m. start time for an east coast game? Fucking assholes. Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals will be damn near over by the time Orlando and L.A. tip-off for what is sure to be an excruciatingly painful first half (that I will unfortunately get to watch) followed by a second half full of championship-style basketball (that I will be sleeping through). Now, I don’t think I could ever be a left-coaster but it must be nice to sit down at 6 p.m. and watch an NBA Finals game all the way through and then still have ample time to search the internet for some wonderfully degrading amateur porn before heading off for some well-earned rest. I on the other hand have to search for porn while I watch the game (aesthetically, Sasha Grey does nothing for me but I believe in the last clip I saw she said “yeah motherfucker, make that pussy prolapse”. I‘m not saying it‘s sexy, just that I would watch it again). So who won? To be honest I’ve never rooted for a Kobe Bryant team (do you really think I give a fuck about basketball as an Olympic sport? No). But I’m hoping for a four-game sweep just so we can get this whole thing over with. Yes, I’m a Cavs’ fan and if The King was still playing I’d be singing a different tune. But unless these games start getting more exciting my interest will keep waning. I see Orlando pulling it’s one and only win out tonight though, 112-97. Let me know in the morning how it turned out.