Yep, the Lakers rolled, 99-86, to eliminate the Magic in Game 5 of the 2009 Finals. It is the franchise’s 15th title and Phil Jackson’s 10th as a head coach.

Kobe got his first ring without Shaq. His legacy as one of the NBA’s all-time greatest players is secure. Even though he is the league’s most polarizing personality, he deserves a ton of credit for the way he led the Lakers this season. He deferred to his teammates time and time again, and they came through when it mattered most. This is no big deal for a lot of players, but Kobe is a different beast.

Unfortunately for the Magic, the competitiveness of these Finals is going to fade as time goes on. The Lakers’ ability to clinch in five games seems dominant on paper and people are going to forget that if not for two plays — Courtney Lee’s missed alley-oop in Game 2 and Jameer Nelson’s failure to contest Derek Fisher’s game-tying three in Game 4 — this series easily could have gone into Game 5 with the Magic leading, 3-1. But by losing tonight the way they did, most people are going to forget how evenly matched these two teams were.

Heading into the offseason, it’s going to be interesting to see what’s ahead for each of these teams. Hedo Turkoglu, Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza, Marcin Gortat and Shannon Brown are all entering free agency. If Jerry Buss is willing to go deep into luxury tax territory, the Lakers may elect to repeat this year’s success and sign both Ariza and Odom. My guess is that they re-sign Ariza and let Odom go. As for the Magic, they sound like they’re willing to go over the luxury tax threshold to re-sign Turkoglu. Gortat is a valuable player, but since he plays behind Howard, it will be hard to justify matching a significant offer.

Jason Whitlock, Kansas City Star: I’ve never been much of a Phil Jackson fan. Give me Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and I’ll fill a trophy case, too. Jackson, the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, doesn’t belong beside Red Auerbach, the most accomplished coach in NBA history. The Zen Master, as Jackson is referred, is a wonderful manager of egos and a suspect strategist, vulnerable to exposure by the game’s top tacticians such as Larry Brown and Gregg Popovich. That’s what I used to think before the current NBA finals series. I didn’t fully appreciate and/or comprehend Jackson’s brilliance. Orlando’s Stan Van Dumby has placed Jackson in proper perspective for me. So tonight, if Jackson surpasses Auerbach by securing a 10th championship, I will not offer an objection when analysts claim Jackson is Auerbach’s equal. For the first time in his career, Jackson is poised to win the title with an inferior team. I know that statement contradicts the lies you have been fed by the so-called experts who cover the NBA. But the truth is, Van Dumby has more tools in his work belt than Jackson.

Bill Plaschke, LA Times: “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Bryant said, laughing. The same questioner reminded him that it would soon be a topic. “It won’t be a topic,” Bryant said. “Won’t be an issue.” The questioner asked him to elaborate. “No,” Bryant said. “That’s exactly why it won’t be an issue.” It was my turn. I first accused Bryant of bringing up the subject, and he laughed again. “I didn’t bring it up,” he said. “I deflected.” Then I asked the only question on this subject that I figured he might answer. I asked, could you imagine playing for anyone else besides the Lakers next year? “No,” he said. Bingo. That’s enough for me, and should be enough for the Lakers. Unless Lakers officials somehow botch the negotiations for the new deal Bryant will demand after opting out of his contract — and they won’t, they love Kobe — then Bryant will be around to attempt another three-peat.

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John Romano, St. Petersburg Times: Oh, technically the NBA Finals are still far from complete. Orlando still has another home game on Sunday night. And if you buy the old coaching mantra of one-game-at-a-time, you can picture a scenario where the Magic still comes away with a title. But realistically, the end is near. You could see it the moment the ball left Derek Fisher’s fingertips in the final minute of overtime on Thursday night. You could see it in the frustration of Mickael Pietrus when he whacked Pau Gasol from behind in the final seconds. You could see it on the scoreboard that betrayed an arena filled with fans after looking so friendly for most of the night. The truth is, Orlando blew its chance to be the champion of the NBA in Game 4 on Thursday night.

T.J. Simers, LA Times: We probably won’t know who has been actually coaching the Lakers this series until Phil’s next book is published. Right now the best we can do is offer congrats to Coach Phil & Coach Kobe and thanks to the Magic for playing as if it has never been coached to win a big game. The guy coaching the Magic was so outclassed against the likes of Coaches Phil & Kobe, he was playing a rusty Jameer Nelson with the game on the line. If the guy’s not coaching a YMCA team next season, he might want to instruct Nelson not to sag on a three-point shooter like Derek Fisher when leading by three. As for the Lakers, it’s very confusing at times who is in charge around here, especially the way Kobe has been playing.

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Kobe Bryant went 11 for 31 from the field, and struggled to score down the stretch. Luckily for the Lakers, Derek Fisher continued to shoot well in the series and knocked down two huge threes, one at the end of regulation and one in the extra period to completely change the complexion of the game, and as a result, the series. (Lakers win, 99-91.)

But this one never should have gone to overtime. With a five-point lead and 0:39 to play, Rashard Lewis had a chance to push the lead to seven, but missed the 15-footer. Up three with 0:11 to play, Dwight Howard missed two free throws, either of which would have made it a two possession game. On the ensuing inbounds play, Jameer Nelson ponderously laid off of Derek Fisher who pulled up and hit the game-tying three. I don’t know if Stan Van Gundy had the foul on there, but at the very least Nelson should have been crowding Fisher to force the drive.

The Magic really lost this game at the start of the third quarter. Their 12-point halftime lead was gone within six minutes, and they didn’t even force the Lakers to expend a lot of energy to cut into the lead. Trevor Ariza led the charge with 11 quick points in the first half of the quarter.

Van Gundy will look at the box score and scratch his head. The Magic had 17 turnovers, and most of those were in the first half. Had they took care of the ball, they probably would have pushed the lead to 20. Orlando also missed 13 free throws, eight from Howard, who was just 6 of 14 from the line.

Bryant finished with 32 points, eight assists and seven boards, and had a good all-around game even though he didn’t shoot the ball well. Pau Gasol and Trevor Ariza pitched in with 16 apiece.

Hedo Turkoglu played a great game, posting 23 points, three assists and five boards. He put the Magic in a position to win, but his teammates couldn’t seal the deal. Turkoglu isn’t infallible, however. He did miss three free throws down the stretch. Howard posted 16 points, 21 rebounds and nine blocks, but he turned over the ball seven times. Outside of a tough three to give Orlando the lead in OT, Lewis was a no-show. He went 2 for 10 for six points. Mickael Pietrus once again played great off the bench, scoring 15 points and making life tough for Kobe.

For all intents and purposes, this series is over. The odds of the Magic winning three straight games (two in L.A.) are very, very long. After the tough loss in Game 2, they had to win all three games in Orlando to have a realistic shot at upsetting the Lakers.

I know there are a lot of people out there that aren’t very happy to see Kobe win another ring (and I’m one of them). But you have to give him credit for maturing enough to trust his teammates. He gave the ball up in a couple of key situations and they both led to Fisher threes.

It’s not quite over, but the Laker fans have reason to celebrate. Heck, most of them started planning the parade when L.A. won Game 2.

Think about it…Pau Gasol is averaging 18.6 points and 10.6 rebounds per game in the playoffs, and is shooting a scintillating 58.1% from the field. One of the best gauges of overall offensive efficiency is points per shot (PPS), which is simply the total points scored divided by the number of field goal attempts. Gasol’s PPS is 1.54, which is outstanding.

Then you have Kobe. Sure, he’s averaging 30.1 points, but he has to shoot almost 23 shots per game to get those points. (He’s also averaging 5.4 assists and 5.1 rebounds.) His PPS is 1.33, which is still good, but is almost 14% less than Gasol’s.

Kobe is so determined to win a title this season for one reason — he wants to dispel the notion that he can only win a championship as Shaq’s sidekick. If the Lakers do manage to eliminate the Magic and Kobe does indeed get his fourth ring, he will have accomplished this feat…as Pau Gasol’s sidekick.

Now before any Kobe apologists start pounding furiously at their keyboards, I don’t actually believe this to be true. Kobe is the better player, but these numbers beg the question — why aren’t the Lakers using Gasol more?

Against the Magic, Gasol has made 23 of his 37 field goal attempts (62%). Against the Nuggets, he shot 63% from the field. The Spaniard is on such a roll right now that the Lakers should be feeding him the ball until the Magic find a way to stop him. Anytime Andrew Bynum is in the game, Rashard Lewis has to cover Gasol, and he’s no match for Pau in the post. Heck, even when Bynum goes to the bench, Gasol is scoring at will on Dwight Howard, the 2009 Defensive Player of the Year. Gasol was 9 of 11 from the field in Game 3, yet it was Kobe who took the most shots (11 of 25, 44%), even when he was clearly struggling down the stretch.

Mark my words, if Gasol keeps this production up and the Lakers go on to lose this series, it will be because Kobe took too many shots.

Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don’t Lie: Orlando shot the hell out of the ball. The Lakers made a ton of mistakes on the defensive end of the court, but Orlando had just as big a role, if not much bigger, in tossing in 108 points in a slow game. The ball movement wasn’t perfect, but it was done quickly, and the shots were falling even as the Magic (supposedly) bucked NBA tradition by going from the outside-in. The ball was moving, and the spacing was there. Yes, the screen and roll attack bogged down a bit in the third and part of the fourth quarter as the team’s legs left them and Hedo Turkoglu made some questionable decisions, but by and large the Magic built their offensive juggernaut with quick flashes to the ball that were met by a pass. Credit Stan Van Gundy’s play calling. Early in the first quarter, he set his shakier-types up for quick looks that they couldn’t think too long about. Rashard Lewis’ first two buckets were quick flashes to the post for a turnaround jumper. Rafer Alston’s first attempts (and makes) were on guard-around screens that Derek Fisher went under. All four shots left no room for contemplation. All four shots went in.

Jeff Miller of the OC Register: Kobe Bryant, so often the inhuman highlight film, was oh so human Tuesday, the game’s No. 1 closer this time the victim of someone else’s walk-off dramatics. “You know,” Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said after a 108-104 loss to the Magic, “we’re all frail as humans.” All it means for now is The Finals will be going at least five games. Ultimately, that might be it, nothing more than a blip on the way to the top. But if the Magic can continue badgering Bryant and he keeps huffing down the stretch and Orlando is making its shots … there’s still a chance this matchup could become quite interesting. See, even Bryant, who has carried this team – this franchise, actually – for so long now, is still subject to the most basic of man’s needs. Specifically, we’re talking here about oxygen.

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The Magic shot a Finals-record 62.5% from the field, but amazingly enough, they only won by four, 108-104. Still, a win is a win and the Magic have to feel good about how they played in Game 3.

Orlando had five players score 18-plus points: Dwight Howard (21 points, 14 rebounds), Rashard Lewis (21), Rafer Alston (20), Hedo Turkoglu (18) and Mickael Pietrus (18). Pietrus gave the Magic a big lift in the fourth quarter with a terrific follow-up dunk (that was actually a goaltend) and a key steal with less than 0:30 to play and the Magic nursing a two-point lead.

Orlando really moved the ball well and was able to get good shot after good shot, save for a stretch in the fourth quarter where the Lakers erased the Magic’s nine-point lead.

Kobe Bryant was as hot as a pistol in the first half, scoring 21 points in the first two periods, but he really struggled down the stretch. He was just 4 of 9 from the free throw line and turned the ball over four times. He finished with 31 points, eight assists and five boards. Pau Gasol chipped in with 23 points on 9-11 shooting. He is in such a groove in the post and the Lakers aren’t going to him enough.

The Magic are still very much in this series. They need to take this one game at a time and not think about the daunting task of winning three games in a row at home. They’ve already proven they can outplay the Lakers in Los Angeles, so if they can get two more wins in Orlando, the series will be very interesting. If the Lakers come back to L.A. up 3-2, the series is all but over.

Ramona Shelburne of the LA Daily News: The plays are only noticeable in hindsight. On replays. In memory. And sometimes not even then. Little plays that could be pivotal if they don’t go the right way. Some call them “veteran plays.” Others use terms like “heady” and “mature” or “cerebral.” It sounds vague and arbitrary, but tell that to the team that doesn’t know how to make these kinds of plays. It’s even harder to explain how some players learn to make them and others don’t. Whether it’s instinct or experience, natural poise or acquired savvy. Only one thing is certain: Championship teams make them, everyone else watches them later in the film room. And right now, the Lakers are the team in these NBA Finals keeping the opposing video technician busy.

Jeff Briggs of the RCS Blog: Tonight, Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals is on NBC at 8pm. A mere hour later, Game 3 of the NBA Finals airs on ABC. While there are clearly two separate sets of fans that follow the sports, the two leagues are still cannibalizing each other’s audience. Sports fans like to watch championship events. People shouldn’t be forced to choose between either the Stanley Cup or NBA finals. They should be able to watch both, hockey one day and basketball the next.

Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: The Lakers haven’t allowed the Magic to be the Magic much at all in taking a 2-0 lead. They’ve had them on the run since this whole thing started, creating chaos. The Magic have been scrambling to find other ways to play, and with other players playing different positions, causing realignment of X’s as well as O’s. Hard to play the NBA Finals on the fly, but it’s reality. Coach Stan Van Gundy pulled out everything imaginable from his bag of tricks on Sunday, and somehow the Magic almost turned the Finals on its ear before losing in overtime.

George Diaz of the Orlando Sentinel: The Magic have scored just 171 points in consecutive losses. That 85.5 average has something to do with the Lakers’ defense, obviously. But it also has much to do with the inability of the Magic to get into any groove when the ball is bouncing in their hands. We’ll get to the point: Jameer Nelson coming back after a four-month layoff has mucked things up for the Magic in the NBA Finals. This is the dark side of the silver lining Magic fans saw in Nelson’s return after that prolonged absence because of his shoulder injury. Nelson’s unexpected availability has messed with the Magic mojo.

The Lakers survived a tough test, but beat the Magic, 101-96, in overtime.

The officiating was pretty awful in this game, especially in the first quarter and down the stretch. There was a series of calls late in the game that were all questionable and all went in the Lakers’ favor. Mickael Pietrus was called for a bogus foul on a Kobe Bryant drive, Hedo Turkoglu was called for a cheap offensive foul which wiped away a nice little jumper, and Lamar Odom drilled Courtney Lee on his driving layup attempt with less than ten seconds to play in regulation, and no foul was called. Orlando’s last best chance to win was Lee’s alley-oop attempt with 0.6 seconds to play, but the lob pass was a little too deep and he was unable to convert the shot.

The Lakers executed well in overtime, and Odom uncharacteristically made two clutch free throws to put the Lakers up by five with 0:22 to play. J.J. Redick and Rashard Lewis had a couple of tough, contested three point attempts to cut into the lead, but time expired with a pair of misses.

I can’t help but leave this game thinking that if not for the help from the officials, the Lakers would have lost this game in regulation. I guess that’s just home court advantage, but it really seemed like the refs took over the game down the stretch instead of letting the players battle it out.

Kobe had 29 points, eight assists, four rebounds and seven turnovers. Pau Gasol added 24 points and 10 boards, and Odom once again had a good game off the bench, posting 19 points and eight boards. If he keeps playing like this, the Lakers will have to re-sign him this offseason.

Orlando got great play from Lewis (34 points) and Turkoglu (22 points), and while Dwight Howard had 17 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, four blocks and four steals, he also had seven turnovers, which is waaaaaaay too many for a big man. He spent a lot of time complaining to the refs when he lost the ball instead of getting back on defense.

The problem for the Magic is that they aren’t getting much production from their supporting cast. The rest of the Magic went 8 for 31 from the field, lowlighted by Rafer Alston’s 1 for 8 performance. He seems bothered by Jameer Nelson’s presence, but the Magic need a fourth and fifth guy to make some shots.

The Lakers are doing a good job of rotating and keeping the Magic from getting easy baskets, but Orlando had a ton of open shots in the first half and just couldn’t convert.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, the Magic are expected to keep All-Star point guard Jameer Nelson sidelined for Game 1 tonight.

Orlando Magic point guard Jameer Nelson isn’t likely to play tonight in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the L.A. Lakers, but he is expected to be activated and dress out, the Sentinel has learned. The chance of him playing in the series is still remote.

It’s interesting that the team is going to activate him and that he’s going to dress for the game. One of the most amazing things about Orlando’s run to the Finals is the fact that they’ve done it without Nelson, who is considered to be the team’s second-best player after Dwight Howard (or at least he was having the second-best season when he injured his shoulder). The Magic are still capable of upsetting the Lakers in the series, but it will be tougher without Nelson’s help.