Magic / Lakers Matchup Probs?

[gar]

The Magic have beaten the Lakers both previous meetings this season; yet 9 out of ten "experts" pick the Lakers - gotta love Abbott. Should be a close series; however the Magic will not be able to exploit the size advantage they had in the first two rounds.

Alston / Fisher - Even
Carter / Farmar - Lakers

Lee / Kobe - Lakers
Pietrus / Vujacic - Magic (Pietrus will do spend a lot of time on Kobe; however expect Kobe to exploit his weakness more then Lebron)

Turkoglu / Ariza - Even
        / Walton

Lewis / Gasol - Even
Battie / Odom - Lakers (Magic may have to play Battie some which takes a shooter off the floor)

Howard / Bynum - Magic
Gortat /

[wdleehi]

Alston should have a field day with Fisher trying to keep up with him

Ariza may be playing good right now, Turkoglu is still better.


If Lewis is hitting his shot, Gasol can't guard him. 

And no matter who else is on the floor, Howard should be guarding Gasol.

[PosImpos]

Um...Turkoglu is still a mismatch on Ariza / Walton, and Lewis is still a mismatch on Pau, although that has positives and negatives for both teams.

If anything Pietrus should have an easier time with Kobe because they are closer in size (LeBron is a lot bigger than Pietrus in terms of height and build).

And I'd say Howard is a mismatch for anybody the Lakers could throw at him, Bynum has the best chance of defending him well but he hasn't been all that great lately.  Pau and Odom are too soft to contain him.

That said, Odom should still be a tough cover for them and Kobe is a tough cover for any team no matter who they have.

I'd say Alston > Farmar / Fisher / Brown and Johnson should be able to hold his own against them.