If this story is true, it’s mind-boggling…

The hottest Carlos Boozer tale to blip onto the radar this week: Sources say Memphis had the option of trading for Boozer instead of Zach Randolph earlier this month.

Yet the Grizz decided, apparently with considerable input from coach Lionel Hollins, that Boozer would have been less than thrilled to play out the final season of his contract in Graceland, thus convincing them that Randolph — starting over for the third time — would be more productive.

As difficult as it remains for many league observers to digest the idea that Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley felt he could no longer afford Pau Gasol but now is willing to give the combustible Randolph some $33 million over the next two seasons, there’s little doubt that Randolph will feature hugely for the Grizz next season.

It’s not like Randolph is a guy who has been mired in a bad situation his entire career. He has been with three different teams and they all wanted to get rid of him. It’s unbelievable that the Grizzlies had a shot at Boozer and instead decided to go with Randolph, who isn’t half the player and has a far worse contract. The piece is correct — the Randolph trade makes the decision to get rid of Pau Gasol all the more insane.

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.

The Lakers routed the Magic, 100-75, in Game 1 of the Finals. Kobe Bryant had a brilliant game, posting 40 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, two steals and two blocks. Pau Gasol chipped in with 16 points and eight rebounds, and Lamar Odom was the only other Laker to score in double digits with 11 points to go along with 14 boards.

The game was still close (10 points) at halftime until a 29-15 third quarter put the Lakers firmly in control. The Magic shot just 30% from the field and the Orlando starters shot just 10 of 46 (22%) from the floor. The trio of Dwight Howard (12 points, 15 rebounds), Rashard Lewis (eight points) and Hedo Turkoglu (13 points) all had subpar games, and despite reports that he was not going to get any action, Jameer Nelson played 23 minutes, and went 3 of 9 from the field for six points.

Marcia Smith of the Orange County Register writes that the Lakers can start thinking sweep.

Given that nonchalance, is there any legitimate reason to expect that the Magic can conjure from thin air something as elaborate as an offensive game plan or an effective defense by Sunday’s Game 2 to make this series last longer than four games?

Probably not. Lakers fans should buy more brooms.

Mark Bresnahan of the LA Times writes that Kobe was the one who looked like Superman.

Perhaps his best play started with a crossover dribble, then a few more dribbles as he measured up Mickael Pietrus, drove on him and delivered a double-pump nine-foot bank shot after being fouled. The made free throw gave the Lakers a 75-52 lead with 3:17 left in the third quarter.

Bryant, who had 18 points in the third quarter, refused to claim any sort of victory.

“We haven’t found anything,” he said. “It’s one game. No big deal.”

Chris Sheridan of ESPN.com says that Orlando fans won’t be encouraged by Mickael Pietrus’s words after the game.

As for the Magic’s defense, we advise anyone back in central Florida dressed in blue and white to skip ahead two paragraphs because the following quote from Pietrus — Orlando’s designated Kobe stopper — isn’t exactly going to inspire confidence (nor will it be pleasant to know that Pietrus was smiling as he said it).

“I was trying to do my best, but everyone knows this guy is a legend. What can you do?”

Are the Magic likely to bounce back from a 25-point defeat to win the series? No. They were outhustled, outplayed and looked outclassed. But it’s way too early to start talking sweep, and Smith’s article is just the kind of talk that Stan Van Gundy wants his team to hear over the next couple of days.

As I was watching the game with a friend, I mentioned to him that the bigger the win in Game 1, the better the Magic’s chances of stealing Game 2. The Lakers have a tendency to lose focus, and this Orlando team isn’t going to roll over. They’ve been resilient all year and all playoffs, and they’re likely to play a lot better on Sunday.

It’s not the matchup that everyone (outside of central Florida) wanted to see, but it’s a good matchup nonetheless. The Magic proved in their series against the Cavs that they are currently the best team in the East, and they’ll face the battle-tested Lakers who are coming off a pair of rough and rugged series against the Rockets and the Nuggets.

Orlando has been the more consistent team and they don’t get rattled. They get down big with regularity and have been able to get back into games by playing one possession at a time and not worrying too much about the scoreboard early on. Conversely, the Lakers have been “bipolar” (to quote their star) and no one really knows which team is going to show up. It seems to be a matter of focus and effort, and the Lakers have struggled with their consistency in both areas of the game. There are times that they look like the best team in the league and there are times when they look like they should have been knocked out in the first round.

Let’s look at each position and break down the different matchups…

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Pau Gasol can’t understand why the Lakers aren’t utilizing their advantage inside to better effect.

“I wish we would take more advantage of our height and the inside game, because it’s pretty effective. It’s unfortunate that we don’t recognize it enough,” Gasol said, according to the Daily News.

“It’s frustrating because we lose games,” Gasol said, according to the report. “I don’t mind when we win, because the bottom line is, I want to win. But I feel like we have an advantage, and I’m effective, we should stay with what works and what’s effective and not get away from it. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Gasol is shooting almost 63% in the series and should be getting the ball more. The Nuggets have been reluctant to double team, so if the Lakers start feeding him the ball and let him go to work, it will force Denver to adjust (or let him score efficiently). Derek Fisher has been awful from the perimeter, and Lamar Odom isn’t bringing much to the table, so the Lakers might as well go with what’s been working. After all, he is their second-best player.

Typically, an NBA team can expect to score one point per possession (or thereabouts) over a course of a game. So when one team outrebounds another on the offensive glass by a margin of 20-9, it’s really 11 extra possessions and 11 extra opportunities to score. That’s why the Nuggets were able to bounce back tonight from a tough loss in Game 3; they dominated the glass by a margin of 58-40, and went on to win 120-101.

The win is even more impressive considering the struggles of Carmelo Anthony, who went 3 of 16 from the field. Chauncey Billups picked up the slack, and had key back-to-back buckets when the Nuggets were nursing a nine-point lead early in the fourth quarter. He drove to the hole and got the “and one,” and then on the Nuggets’ next possession, he brought the ball up and drained a three. Billups was one of seven Nuggets to score in double figures; J.R. Smith deserves mention for his 24 points and four assists off the bench.

Kobe Bryant posted 34 points on 10 of 26 shooting (39%). Pau Gasol added 21 points and 10 boards, and Andrew Bynum had 14 points and five boards, but Phil Jackson isn’t getting much production from the rest of the roster. Two vets that the Lakers are counting on — Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher — combined to shoot 3 of 15 for 10 points.

The series moves back to L.A. for Game 5 and if the Nuggets can avoid the mental errors in crunch time, they have a good shot to win this series. The Lakers are inconsistent and out of synch, and they really need that supporting cast to raise its game.

The Lakers didn’t play all that well, but they performed well enough to get a win (103-97) on the road in the playoffs, and that is no small feat. Denver had control for much of the game, and with Carmelo Anthony on the bench, the Nuggets built a seven-point lead at the end of the third quarter. But a sorry five-minute stretch to start the fourth quarter was Denver’s undoing. Check out these nine possessions:

11:41 J.R. Smith misses 25-foot three point jumper
10:49 Linas Kleiza misses 5-foot jumper
10:27 Chauncey Billups misses 26-foot three point jumper
10:11 Chauncey Billups makes technical free throw
9:59 Chris Andersen misses layup
9:44 J.R. Smith misses layup
8:53 Nene Hilario misses 9-foot two point shot
8:22 Trevor Ariza blocks Carmelo Anthony’s 15-foot jumper
8:18 Kenyon Martin misses layup
7:39 Pau Gasol blocks Chris Andersen’s layup

That’s one point in the first four and a half minutes of the fourth quarter. By the time they scored again, they were trailing by one. Carmelo Anthony went cold and the Nuggets simply struggled to score. Chauncey Billups launched some ill-advised shots (and hit a few of them), but it was J.R. Smith who seemed to be the go-to man down the stretch.

For the Lakers, Trevor Ariza and Pau Gasol played well in the closing minutes, but down two with about a minute to play, it was Kobe Bryant who hit a huge three pointer to put his team ahead. Denver turned the ball over (again) on the inbounds pass, and again, it was Ariza who made the big defensive play. At that point, the Lakers just had to knock down their free throws, and they did. With the win, the Lakers wrested back control of the series. Game 4 is of the “must-win” variety for the Nuggets.

After their tough, emotional loss in Game 1, conventional wisdom said that the Nuggets would be reeling and wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight in Game 2. But these aren’t your father’s Nuggets. With the addition of Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony’s transformation after playing in Beijing with Team USA, these Nuggets are tough-minded.

It took a while for Denver to get going. The Lakers came out like gangbusters and had a 13-point lead with 2:40 to play in the second quarter. But the Nuggets went on a 14-2 run over the last 160 seconds to narrow the lead to one at halftime.

The Lakers built a seven-point lead in the middle of the third quarter, but once again, the Nuggets responded and cut the lead to one at the end of the period. In the fourth quarter, it was the Nuggets turn to build a seven-point lead with 9:06 to play. At this point, I was a little perplexed by George Karl’s decision to go with J.R. Smith (1-6, 3 points) instead of Linas Kleiza (5-8, 16 points, 8 rebounds) down the stretch. Smith didn’t play horribly in the final minutes, but he didn’t do anything positive either. The Lakers fought back, and with 1:00 to play and the Nuggets up two, Smith turned the ball over (his third of the night). Karl obviously knows his team far better than I do, but Kleiza simply played much, much better tonight and probably should have been in the game.

There were a couple of missed calls down the stretch. Kobe traveled before he made his three to tie the game at 99-99 and during a jumpball with 0:18 to play, the refs missed Smith slicing through the circle before the ball was touched. That should have been Laker ball out of bounds, but since the refs missed Kobe’s travel, things evened out.

Chauncey Billups made 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to seal the 106-103 win. Derek Fisher had a shot from the corner to tie the game at the buzzer but he missed the rim.

Carmelo Anthony had another great game, posting 34 points, nine rebounds (five offensive) and four assists. Chauncey Billups had 27 points, while Kleiza and Kenyon Martin chipped in with 16 apiece. Kobe led the Lakers with 32 points, while Trevor Ariza added 20 points (on 6 of 7 shooting) and four steals. Pau Gasol added 17 points and 17 rebounds.

I know that Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant have a long history with Derek Fisher, but he went just 1 of 9 from the field tonight, and is shooting under 30% in the last two playoff series. It might be time to give Jordan Farmar a few more minutes.

We’re down to four teams…Cavs/Magic…Lakers/Nuggets…

What do they have in common? Star power, efficient offense, pretty solid defense, good coaching…check, check, check and check.

But how about an aggressive front office?

Each of these four teams made a major trade in the last two years.

July 11, 2007: The Magic sign Rashard Lewis
This was a sign-and-trade, not a straight free agent signing, but the Magic only had to give up a conditional second round pick. The upside for the then-Seattle Supersonics was a trade exception worth $9 million. The contract (six years, $110 million) seemed outlandish at the time, and Lewis is still overpaid, but the Magic did what they had to do to get him. He’s a great fit for what Orlando is trying to do. They are built like the Rockets were in the Hakeem Olajuwon era — find a big man who commands a double-team, and surround him with great shooters. Lewis is the Magic’s version of Robert Horry in that he’s a lanky, versatile, sharpshooting big man. Strength-wise, he’s not built like a typical power forward, but since the NBA has gotten smaller and quicker over the past few years, he can get by against most teams. Offensively, he creates all sorts of problems for opposing power forwards as he can drill the long ball (career 39% from 3PT) or take it to the rack. He’s also pretty good in the post when teams try to defend him with a smaller player.

Sure, the Magic overpaid on that contract, but I think it’s safe to say that if they hadn’t, they wouldn’t be in the Eastern Conference Finals right now. Lewis is a big, big part of Orlando’s recent success. GM Otis Smith deserves a lot of credit for having the cojones to pull the trigger on this deal.

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