The fine folks at Nike obviously don’t like seeing their golden child being dunked on, and so, seemingly at the behest of King James, they removed all footage of LeBron being baptized by Xavier’s Jordan Crawford at one of LeBron’s skills summer camps. According to those who saw it, it was a pretty nasty dunk by Joe Crawford‘s younger brother, a two-handed jam that was apparently so nasty, LeBron and his supporting company didn’t want the video — or pictures — appearing online.
Too bad LeBron doesn’t have the same kind of creative control with the NBA like he does with Nike. If so, there’d be no footage of Courtney Lee’s dunks over LeBron during the Cleveland/Orlando series. For that fact, I will thank the maker. And YouTube:
Lots on the line tonight. For the Lakers, it’s a chance to take a commanding 3-1 series lead and for Orlando, an opportunity to put everything back to square one. There’s a lot to keep an eye on tonight. Things like, will the Lakers get Pau Gasol the ball in a position to shoot more often, or will Kobe the Closerreturn to form or continue to show signs of wall collision?
For the Magic, will Gina Incandela’s good luck continue because she’s singing the National Anthem again tonight? Speaking of Pau Gasol’s touches, will Dwight Howard get more than 10 shots tonight, something that hasn’t happened in the previous three games? Another key is the play of their guards. In the first two games, Mickael Pietrus and Rafer Alston were non-existent. This changed dramatically in Game 3 as Pietrus contributed 18 and Alston 21.
If the Magic want to tie this sucker up, a repeat performance from those two — or Courtney Lee — is in order.
I’ve pretty much been holding the flame for Courtney Lee ever since he posterized LeBron (twice). It helps, of course, that he went to Western Kentucky University (Hilltoppers represent), as did I; although, my two semester stay at WKU wasn’t near as productive as Lee’s Hilltopper tenure. After being buried under and avalanche of missed Nick Anderson free throws for the miss at the end of Game 2, Lee got a modicum of comeuppance with a nasty baseline dunk in Game 3. Yeah, it was only worth two points in the middle of the third quarter, but when you look at the four-point deciding margin, buckets like these loom a little bit larger.
Does this look like an easy shot to you? If you are one of the many essentially vilifying (or thanking) Orlando Magic guard Courtney Lee for missing a game-winning layup, then perhaps it does. Conversely, there’s been an uprising of folks — not limited to the Orlando Sentinel’sMike Bianchi either — who have taken up the cause for Lee by defending his last-second attempt. Speaking of Bianchi, here’s what he thinks:
Even if you are a Lakers fan, you have to feel for Courtney Lee — well, probably not — who missed not one, but two crucial late-game layups that could have given the Orlando Magic a Game 2 win, plus the home court advantage that came with such a victory. This morning, however, there’s a great deal of blame being laid at Lee’s feet. Granted, he could’ve/should’ve converted one of those two shots, but it seems like folks are losing sight of all those turnovers the Magic committed, 20, while burying Lee under the pile containing Nick Anderson’s missed free throws.
I’ve been critical of Kobe Bryant in the past, but I’m also a “credit where credit is due” person and simply put, Kobe Bryant was nothing shy of brilliant in Game 1 against the Orlando Magic. His full offensive repertoire was on display as he dazzled the Staples Center crowd with a bevvy of turnaround jump shots and an all-around sense of “I can’t be stopped” oozing out. Bryant got off to a normal start in the first quarter, but as the Magic were riding high on the return of Jameer Nelson in the second quarter to the tune of a five point lead, Kobe returned and dropped 12 second quarter points on 6-9 shooting.
The Lakers followed his lead to a 10-point halftime lead. Unfortunately for Orlando, Kobe’s third quarter started much like the second one ended with Kobe again scoring in double digits. By then, the route was on. Bryant finished the game two assists and rebounds shy of triple-double as his most-dominant performance carried the Lakers to 1-0 lead.
We left you last week with a nice little dunk of Courtney Lee over LeBron James, and after a three-day weekend, we find the news is repeating itself. What we have is Lee demonstrating the lesson he learned after LeBron’s filthy block in the previous half — that is, dunk the ball when you have the chance, especially when James is trailing you. Of course, if your name is Dwight Howard and you have five fouls, I’d avoid trying to block a shot altogether; especially when you are trailing the play.
Apparently, the officials won’t have the best angle in the world to see your perfectly clean, game-ending rejection.
