May 31: The Lakers arrived to the NBA Finals for the second year in a row but this time they expect to end their season on a very different way from last year when they were beaten up by the Celtics.

This time the Lakers have home-court advantage but it won't be an easy task, they will face the Orlando Magic who knocked off the 76ers in 6 games, then the current champions Celtics in 7, winning game 7 in Boston and then defeated Lebron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers in 6 games.

The Magic won both games against Los Angeles in the regular season but the Playoffs are another thing and the Lakers certainly have more postseason experience and arrive having showed their best basketball in the last two games against Denver.

Dwight Howard's physicality will be a problem for Andrew Bynum who seems to be unable to stay out of foul trouble lately and for Pau Gasol who simply does not have the body to contain him. On the other hand Bynum has been a disappointment on this Playoffs and it could be the perfect time for him to prove what he's made of. Also, Pau Gasol has an unending offensive repertory to test the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year.

The Magic surround Howard with a group of excellent shooters that include Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, Rafer Alston and Mickael Pietrus. Turkoglu and Lewis have prove to be good clutch players but the Lakers will probably try to stop them with the good defense provided by Trevor Ariza and Kobe Bryant. After Orlando got rid of Ariza last season because they thought he wasn't good shooting from long distance he has developed a more-than-acceptable shooting touch and aside from being one of the best players on the defensive end for the Lakers, in this playoffs he has made big plays and shot 50 % from beyond the 3-point line.

Pietrus had to deal with Lebron James in the Eastern Finals and now will have another hard assignment, trying to stop Kobe who is currently performing better than ever, scoring tons of points but also playing team basketball and making sure his teammates make the triangle offense work.

	Guards		Forwards		Center	Key reserves
Los Angeles Lakers	Derek Fisher	Kobe Bryant	Trevor Ariza	Pau Gasol	Andrew Bynum	Lamar Odom Sasha Vujacic Jordan Farmar Shannon Brown Luke Walton
Orlando Magic	Rafer Alston	Courtney Lee	Hedo Turkoglu	Rashard Lewis	Dwight Howard	Mickael Pietrus J.J. Redick Anthony Johnson Marcin Gortat

The Lakers and Magic never faced each other in the Playoffs and while it will be the Lakers 30th NBA Finals it will be the second for the Magic. Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway were part of the Orlando Magic team that in 1995 arrived to the Finals and was defeated by Hakeem Olajuwon and his Houston Rockets. .