Lakers expect new tricks from Magic in Game 2
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Lakers are convinced they will see a different Orlando Magic team in Game Two of the NBA Finals on Sunday.
Orlando was outplayed, out-hustled and out-coached in the series opener, a 100-75 blowout by Los Angeles, and Lakers guard Kobe Bryant said a repeat performance was unlikely.
"We'll have to face many games in this series where they shoot lights out," Bryant told reporters on Saturday.
"This is a team that can get blistering hot and we know that. We've just got to be ready."
The Magic used deadly accurate shooting from the outside to oust LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals but lost that touch against the Lakers.
Orlando connected on just 23-of-77 shots in Thursday's series opener, tying the 1955 Ft. Wayne Pistons for the second-lowest number of field goals ever in the finals.
Lakers veteran guard Derek Fisher said "you can't count on them shooting 29 percent again from the field" on Sunday.
"Even on film, we saw shots that they missed that they're capable of making and will make as the series unfolds," he said.
"We didn't see anything that tells us we're just going to be able to go out on the court and win the game just because we show up."
NO CHANGES
Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said his team lacked "intensity and energy" in the opener of the best-of-seven affair but he was not going to make any wholesale changes.
Orlando has been criticized for their opening-game performance but Van Gundy said the Lakers "played really, really well."
"That's the part that nobody ever talks about in the lopsided games," he said. "They played great. Sometimes it has a lot more to do with the opponent than with yourself.
"It was a little of both. I wasn't happy with our effort and intensity, but I thought the Lakers played extremely well. It wasn't like they played a bad game or a mediocre game and we just did nothing."
Magic All-Star center Dwight Howard dismissed the notion that the Lakers won because they had more big-game experience, having lost in last year's finals to the Boston Celtics.
"In every series it seemed like the team that we played against had more experience than we did," Howard said of the Magic's playoff run. "Boston, they won the title. So in that series they had more experience.
"Cleveland has been to the finals (in 2007) so they had more experience. But it all boils down to who wants it more. Who's going to go out there and play with effort and energy.
"That's what we have to do, we have to play with a lot more effort than we did in the first game, and the outcome should be a lot different."
The series will shift to Orlando for Game Three on Tuesday.
(Editing by John O'Brien)
