That's what I'm saying, guy…

Kobe doin' work

Okay, so you win 59 regular season games, then knock off the defending champs and the team with the best record in the league to reach the NBA Finals. So you’d probably come out pretty fired up in Game 1, despite it being on the road, because you did go 27-14 away from home during the season, after all. Well, not if you’re the Orlando Magic, apparently. The Lakers routed Orlando 100-75 tonight in the opener, holding the Magic to a sparkling 29.9% from the field. Dwight Howard, who’s expected to eat up big men league-wide, made one field goal in 35 minutes.

If this is a sign of what’s to come, it’s gonna be a quick little series. Still, I’m not ready to count out Superman & co., because like I said before, I didn’t give them much of a chance to even win one game against LeBron. Here’s hoping the Magic got some jitters out of the way and bounce back to make this a series.

Anyway, enough talk of Orlando — as expected, Kobe went to work, scoring 40 points and adding eight boards, eight assists and a pair of steals and blocks. Aside from helping shut down Howard, Pau Gasol chipped in 16 and eight and Lamar Odom had 11 and 14 boards. Jameer Nelson returned from his shoulder injury for Orlando and scored six points in 23 minutes.

So, after waiting about a month for Game 1, we’ll only have to sit around for three days until Game 2, which is set for Sunday night at Staples Center. Kobe will be ready…Will you, Superman? In the words of the great Tim Bentum, “Let’s see what happens!”