Four straight strong games from Lamar Odom.
Four straight Lakers wins.
No, it's probably not a coincidence.
Odom -- despite his bruised but healing back -- was second on the Lakers in minutes Sunday night (45 minutes, 53 seconds) and once again filled his line in the box score -- 19 points, eight rebounds, two assists, a steal, three blocks and two turnovers -- in the Lakers' 101-96 win over Orlando in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
In the Lakers' current four-game playoff win streak, Odom is averaging 17.3 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks -- pretty good by anyone's standards, and pretty clearly a difference-making contribution for the Lakers.
This despite a large area of swelling (gradually decreasing, but still sizeable) in his lower back, the result of a hard full in the second-round series with Houston.
"Nothing in my life has been easy, like from day one," said Odom. "I don't expect it. I've got a nice big house, I expect the door to break. I expect something to go wrong. That's life."
There's not much going wrong for Odom right now.
"I look down today and I see I played 45 minutes," he said. "Kobe played 48. He's always hurt. Pau is hurt. That's the way it is. I'm an athlete. I have to just take care of myself."
Phil Jackson knew Odom would eventually get a handle on his back. But no one knew how long it would take.
"It was about being able to play with discomfort, pain that arises from that," said Jackson. "So we thought that he would improve, and actually he has improved. He's come through in every game. ... I know he's struggling out there at the end of the game, but he still came through in a big way for us."
The most impressive thing about Odom's night may be that he needed just nine shots (hitting eight) to score his 19 points. Even when he's that efficient, he knows he's not going to demand the ball, or get it much more.
"You've got Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol," he said. "Those guys are perennial all-stars. I know the offense. I know how to find my way through the offense and get those shots and make them when they count, and all I have to do is get the defense leaning toward me and then Pau and Kobe get it going.
"There's going to be some nights I just have to be efficient. ... I've just got to take advantage when my opportunity comes."
The near miss: Orlando very nearly changed the complexion of the series in a fraction of a second.
Had Courtney Lee made a layup off an alley-oop inbounds pass with six-tenths of a second remaining, Orlando would have won 90-88 in regulation and tied the finals at 1-1 going to Florida.
Instead, the shot bounced out, and the Lakers went on to the overtime win.
"It was a good play," said Lee. "It was a good pass. Coach (Stan Van Gundy) did a good job of drawing up the right play. I caught it, got a good look at the backboard. I tried to get it up there as quick as possible, and the ball rolled off the rim."
Orlando was originally going to run a different play, but with Odom pressuring Hedo Turkoglu's inbounds pass, Turkoglu called a time-out, and Van Gundy drew up something else.
"We executed well," said Van Gundy. "Hedo made a great pass, and we missed it. ... I don't know what else to say. It was a great pass, it was right there, and he missed it."
Said Turkoglu, "I saw an opening and threw it up. It's just luck."
Lee escaped Kobe Bryant's defensive coverage for the open shot, leaving Bryant to merely watch and utter to himself a four-letter word before the shot bounced away. Pau Gasol, meanwhile, leapt toward the basket to try to pressure Lee.
"I was obviously relieved when he missed that shot," said Gasol, "because it could have been a heartbreaker, and right now we could be in a totally different situation.
"I was surprised he was kind of wide open. But I tried to contest it as good as I could, and then we gave ourselves a chance to win the ballgame."
The all-star announcement: Truthfully, beyond the news that the NBA All-Star Game is coming to L.A. in 2011, there wasn't much notable from the press conference announcing the event. The people on the podium -- commissioner Stern, Tim Leiweke (CEO of AEG), mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and councilwoman Jan Perry -- spent times saying nice things about each other and the event. Various reporters from various cities asked about the prospect their cities could land future games. And then everyone left to watch the most boring first quarter in NBA Finals history.
Probably the most interesting exchange came when Leiweke was asked if he could envision hosting the All-Star game at an AEG property outside the United States. He said yes, but both he and Stern said they could not foresee it at AEG's arena in London.
Which would seem to leave China, where AEG and the NBA are partners in operating arenas, including the one that hosted the Olympic basketball tournament this year. Not that the game is likely to leave North America any time soon.
What they said: A few Orlando postgame quotes:
Van Gundy, who played most of the fourth quarter without either of his point guards, Rafer Alston or Jameer Nelson on the court, asking J.J. Reddick to run the offense:
"I thought Rafer was playing well, but they're just leaving him open on every post-up, and we couldn't get the ball in the basket, so we were just searching for somebody to be able to make a shot. Obviously, we didn't find anybody. Our guards were 6 for 26 ... L.A.'s defense was good, but I thought our guards for the most part had very good open looks. ...
"That was the only thing, we were just trying to see if we could get somebody out there who would make shots off the double teams and off the pick-and-rolls and things like that."

Dwight Howard, again contained by the Lakers' defense:
"I think they're doing a great job, team defense. They're mixing it up on me. When Pau is on me, he's forcing me baseline, and there's a big coming to trap me. They're mixing it up. They're doing some crazy things, and its' been frustrating me a little bit.
"But I just have to be more patient and trust my teammates, kick it out and allow them to hit the open shots, and hopefully that will free me up more on the inside. ...
"I was frustrated tonight and in the first game, but being the leader on my team, my teammates cannot see me frustrated."

Turkoglu, on the inability to convert on that final play in regulation:
"It's really hard when you lose these kinds of games when they're in your control, and especially in the fourth quarter. We played better than we played in the first game, but we still have some stuff that we have to do better and we have to correct. We have a lot of turnovers (20) and missed free throws.
"All around, we played good, but it wasn't good enough to win the game."

As expected -- and, in fact, reported in advance by a number of outlets -- the NBA announced prior to Game 2 of the NBA Finals that it had awarded the 2011 NBA All-Star game and related events to Staples Center.
The game -- the fifth to be played in L.A., returning after just seven years -- will be Sunday, Feb. 20, with other events on Friday (rookie game) and Saturday (skills, 3-point and slam dunk competitions).
The relatively short turnaround between all-star games is unusual, but may well be the wave of the future.
"We're likely to shorten the rotation a bit," said commissioner David Stern, "because it's getting hard to find cities with the kind of amenities (necessary) -- the close-in hotel accommodations, the convention center, and the like. And L.A. has been a popular destination. When we started looking at the rotation, this seemed a good time to do it."
That hints at one key point -- the game has to be someplace that players want to go if you want them to participate -- but doesn't really address another: A lot of teams want nothing to do with the all-star game because, by the time the NBA takes its share of the tickets, virtually none are left for the host team's season-ticket holders, which tends to alienate the fan base. The 2011 event is actually awarded to Staples, not to either the Lakers or the Clippers, which bypasses some of those issues.
Tim Leiweke, the CEO of AEG -- the company owning Staples and the surrounding L.A. Live complex -- said the all-star game will be the first major event hosted by Staples with the entire complex -- hotels, theaters and restaurants -- complete.
More from the rather self-congratulatory press conference involving Stern, Leiweke, and mayor Antonio Villaraigosa after the game.

A couple of comments from the coaches' pregame media conferences:
-- Phil Jackson, on what he expects from Orlando:
"We have to look at the fact that it's an uptempo team. They didn't have a whole lot of transition offense in the last game, so probably look for early offense.
"The other aspect of the game is how much will they go to the post? The final thing we have to prevent is penetration through screen-rolls and that liberates a lot of the 3-point shooters. We know they're going to get 3-point shots. We just want to be able to contest them."
-- Stan Van Gundy, asked if the decision to playing Jameer Nelson in Game 1 was largely about preparing him for later in the series:
"It didn't really enter into my thinking. I just thought that he wuld play pretty well, and I thought playing him would give us the best chance to win in Game 1. It didn't work out that way, not because of Jameer obviously, but it didn't work out that way.
"But that's my only thinking. I wasn't thinking to Game 3 or Game 4."

Back about 10:30 or so with a postgame entry.

Here's the rest of the transcript from NBA commissioner David Stern's Thursday press conference at Staples Center, preceding Game 1 of the 2009 NBA FInals:

Q. Do any of those issues now in the economic environment we're in impact teams where a worst case scenario, decisions might be made about relocation?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Well, I think teams will have decisions to make. In some cases, I think quite appropriately, they've decided when revenues fall from attendance or sponsorships, they should make some payroll related decisions. I don't think that's a dereliction of duty, I think that's a sensible statement of intelligent business operations so the team can stay where it is.
But I have no doubt that in times like this, issues of relocation will surface, but there's nothing hot right this minute, but I think that's a possibility. But that's too easy an answer. I mean, the question is how does the team do, how does it relate to the community, groups, day of game, season tickets, sponsorships, things like that, and our teams are working at it harder than they have ever worked before. I mean, there are meetings that we have, best case practices, shared web, where we have a site that as soon as a promotion goes up, how it does, it gets shared with 30 teams. So I think it's making us leaner, but it's also making us better.
And the good news for our teams is that our great partners, and they've been great this year, at Disney and at Turner, are just finishing up the first year of an eight year deal, with seven years to run, with three percent built in raises for the next seven years, and the average length of time of our regional sports network deals is probably about ten years and probably averages $17 million.
Our teams are going to be faced with the necessity to get out and sell tickets and sponsorships, and some, quite frankly, do it better than others, and some are hobbled by their record and by a particular economy in their state. But everything is different. But our owners are mindful of those differences and they're happy and willing to talk about that with their partners, and that's why we'll be scheduling an executive session this summer. But I don't expect any immediate actions, and I don't see any needs.

Q. There was a lot of conversation in the past years about bringing some NBA franchises to Europe, to add some franchises in Europe. Did you put it on hold a little bit or is there still some progress?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: I think there's nothing that let me say this: Everything seems to be on hold these days waiting to see how the economy does. When Angela Merkel was criticizing the Central Bank and the Spanish real estate market is going down and the English banking system is in trouble, prudence says let's wait and watch and do things slowly. For us those things include an exhibition game in October at the O2 Arena, which is owned and operated by the same people who operate this building, AEG our partners in China for building arenas. And we'll be playing the Jazz against the Bulls in London, and then the Jazz will be playing Real Madrid in Madrid. We very much want to keep testing the European markets and we've opened up offices now in Milan and Madrid and Istanbul to go with our Paris and London offices, but we're not going to be making any bold projections or predictions about the location of franchises in Europe at this time.

Q. It's been some time since the Donaghy scandal has elapsed and the league has been moving towards transparency. We've had a lot of flagrant fouls and technical and overruled and a play in Dallas where a play called was determined to be incorrect. Can you tell us both positively how it's progressed and then how the transparency needs to go a bit faster and hasn't progressed enough?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: I'm not sure it needs to go faster. I think the transparency has some negatives because as it relates to flagrants and technicals, in any game on average we get about 92 percent or thereabouts right. With the benefit of slow motion replay and eight additional cameras, you can do a lot after the fact. But all that we do is focus. We do a lot, we do every play for purposes of our own development system. But with respect to technicals and flagrants, which have an impact beyond the game because of the accretion of points and the like and the disqualification of players, we review those and then you get comments like, it's all very nebulous or ambiguous, and I'd like to invite everyone here to referee training camp next season and tell me and I hear it's always a judgment issue. Yes. Did he make it to the spot ahead of the offensive player? Is it a block? Is it a charge? Indeed it is a judgment based upon as many years and as much development as we can get.
But as we open that up and discuss it, it has its downside where it engenders more debate, but we've steeled ourselves for that and we're moving. I don't see any great necessary moves forward, but on each occasion, life is made up of 100 different actions, and when we see an activity that we think we should go public with because it seems like a good idea at the time, we do it. That's our pledge of our transparency. That's why we have invited the media to referee training camp. That's why in many cases we invited media to the sessions that go on with our referees visiting with teams when they're in market.
We hope to soon actually be putting on line soon is a relative term a video rule book that we are developing first for the teams and as we vet it for the public and the media, so that we can at least attend to continue to demystify what ideal our referees are striving for, knowing that it's an ideal that can never fully be reached.

Q. Do you anticipate perhaps additional instant replay in the rules? And would you ever entertain, or would the league benefit with a fourth official? Would that be a positive?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: You know, it's funny, that's a question were you here when we had two officials? I don't think so, okay, and that was a question. We went to three, and it was a big fight between me and the owners.
And then when we had a lock out one year and we went to two officials, wait, we'll keep it at two, but no, we like three. I don't think at this point an extra the third official we felt that an extra pair of eyes on the beat actually would cut down on some action off and away from the ball that wasn't being picked up. But in the proper rotation with the proper training and development, we think our three officials can cover the court well.
We're going to increase instant replay, but at least as we do it incrementally it's going to be on the agenda for October to deal with the 24 second clock because there have been a couple of occasions where it affected the outcome of a game at that moment, and the Competition Committee voted unanimously to recommend it to the Board, and we appointed a committee to say at the last Competition Committee to report back to say what else can we do short of making our games into four hour games that would enable us to assure our fans that we're trying to get it right on an ongoing basis.
I don't think we've seen the end of increased instant replay, but we're looking at it. I don't know, electronically you can have a control center with everything going and you can probably referee the game remotely someday, but I'm not pushing for that and I don't think that would be a particularly good idea.

Q. In some parts of the media and some parts of popular culture there's a belief that the outcome of playoff games are predetermined. How do you respond to that?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Do you believe that?

Q. Absolutely not.
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: I don't believe it, and it doesn't happen that way. I don't know what else to say. It's easy to write about it because it's actually more fun, but we take our integrity and our compliance with the law, because the activity that you're suggesting would not be in compliance, very seriously.
And it actually takes away from the opportunity to say how great our players are, and what a terrific job they do competing with each other to get where they get to. And the idea that somehow the outcome is other than on the merits by these great players is not something that I think thinking people should subscribe to.

Q. You've had like 11 or 12 teams that had a need to tap into your line of credit that you extend league wide. I wanted to know would you give any consideration of just abolishing the luxury tax until the economy
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: No, they chose to. There's a difference between choosing to and having a need to. New Orleans is profitable, and they tapped in. I can understand, you tap in sometimes some teams do it to cover operating losses so owners don't dip into their own pockets. Some do it because it's a good idea. The money is inexpensive and the credit line is good and hard to get, so you take some money out the way landlords and buildings do. Other teams replace debt with less expensive debt and use it to renegotiate with lenders. No, there's no contemplation of eliminating or reducing luxury tax.

Q. I just wanted to ask you how you see Asia, and in particular India as a market, because from what we've seen earlier there have been players who visited Asia and India, so how are you looking at the growth of the NBA in India in particular?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: We are looking at it as a very important growth opportunity for the NBA. We know that our players have visited there. I have a particular in my mind a visit by Kevin Garnett where it was oversubscribed and crowds developed. We just made a new transaction to have an NBA website in India, both in English and in Hindi, and we're actually studying some very important initiatives. We had the Bollywood representatives at a Laker game. And what India tells us is that when you have a nation that is that large, that some small population percentage like 20 percent, which would be 200 million people, or maybe even 30 percent, 300 million, the same size as the U.S., offers an enormous opportunity, geographically diverse for us to do it. So we're very intent on development in India.
And thus far we're involved in grass roots. We had NBA programs, we had Robert Parish there, and we will continue to do it in both ways, television, grass roots, websites, retail sales and sponsorship opportunities.

Q. Does this also mean more infrastructure in terms of arenas?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Yes. And when I said we've had some preliminary discussions, very preliminary, but they involve actually long term considerations of what arena infrastructure would look like in India and what kind possibly of a professional basketball league might look, because we're mindful of the IPL development and the great success of that. But we do recognize that the first sport in India is cricket, as is the second sport and the third sport and the fourth sport, a little bit like football or soccer in Europe. But there's enough room down the road for many other sports.
You know, just one other thing I wanted to mention because I don't want any of the media to miss an important game, Sunday's game starts at 8:00 o'clock Eastern, as we previously announced many months ago to no fanfare.

Q. The WNBA game?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: No, the WNBA is at 2:30 Eastern on ABC, but I know you'll be there so you don't really care about the television aspect of it.
Thank you very much.

That's it, shameless WNBA plugs and all.
Back Friday with coverage from Lakers and Magic practices at Staples Center.

OK, as promised earlier, David Stern's press conference.
The short version is this: Everything's wonderful, the league is the greatest organization in the history of mankind, and LeBron James is fined $25,000 for blowing off the media after losing in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Beyond that, since I thought there might be some people who find it interesting to see exactly how the Stern spin cycle works -- and because it's late and I'm tired, and this shortcut is available -- I'm actually going to post the entire transcript of the Stern press conference, as provided by the ASAP service, in two parts. Part 1 follows:

COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Welcome to the 2009 NBA Finals. We've had a great year. We've had an extraordinary playoffs, including I would just say an electrifying, electrifying Conference Finals, and this is just an exclamation point to a season for the ages, in my view.
Everything came together for us. The development of our young players as members of extraordinary teams, their Olympic experience, the mix that the international players have contributed to this league and the richness that we have received from them, it was apparent throughout the season and apparent throughout the playoffs, and indeed it's apparent in these very Finals.
Interestingly enough, even our NBA Development League has contributed to these playoffs; I guess there are eight roster players with D League experience in these Finals, and that was put into place to develop conditioning, the confidence, the coaching, the community of our players. So we're feeling pretty good about a number of decisions that have been made and have gotten us here, including our support for international basketball, our participation in the World Championships and the Olympics, and our development around the world, which has led to the growth of the game and the development of players that have made our league so much better. And indeed, there are going to be 215 countries receiving our games in 42 languages, and I think that the record audiences that we've had demonstrate that NBA fans, and some new NBA fans, agree with us.
Before I take your questions, I just want to say that as a matter of some interest, yesterday I spoke with LeBron James, who as you know is recovering from surgery, a five hour surgery, and he expressed to me that when he left the building and did not meet the media or did not congratulate the Magic, he was wrong. He'll be talking to you I assume directly as he gets better and stronger, but he asked that I express to the media, the Magic and the fans his apology, and particularly the young fans, because he knows he has a responsibility to all of our fans, and that sportsmanship is appropriate whether you win or whether you lose. He understands why it was necessary for me to fine him $25,000 for missing the media availability.
But I know you'll all join me in wishing him a speedy recovery. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have, after I say one more time, congratulations to the Magic and the Lakers for the run to this Finals, and aren't we lucky to have these two very successful teams here.

Q. The NBA has become involved in bankruptcy proceedings of the Phoenix Coyotes to block their potential move. I just wonder why.
STERN: We haven't quite become involved. We have submitted a document of support with respect to league procedures. We think that there's a principle that's at risk there, which is when you buy a franchise, what do you get. And when you take it out of the sports context, if you buy a fast food franchise in a city, you own that, you don't own the right to have that fast food franchise in any other city. That's why sports leagues have historically voted on where their franchise should be located, and there's an effort underway there to bypass that, and we think that's a principle that we would like to be heard on. I know Major League Baseball and the NFL will support us, as well.

Q. Just wondering, the WNBA has got sponsorship on their jersey. Are we going to see that in the NBA anytime soon?
STERN: You mean the WNBA whose season kicks off on Saturday at 2:30 on ABC, that WNBA? I don't think we're going to see it any time soon, but I am delighted that the WNBA was able to do that because the combination of that, one, that we think will be announced relatively soon for another team, and the fact that they'll have probably 30 games on ESPN, ESPN 2 and ABC this year that will be paid for is really a threshold that's very important for them to have overcome, and it's a very good financial league.
We'll study it. I just saw that an insurance company replaced AIG on Manchester United's uniform for a price. If you have an offer you'd like to make for the owners, I'm prepared to receive it, but right now it's not for sale in the NBA.

Q. I actually have two questions, but since now you've brought up LeBron, the League initially said he would not be fined. What made you go back retroactively and change your mind there?
STERN: I said initially that I was not planning to fine him, but I thought about it more and I went back and did a little work. It's always good to do a little work before you talk. It was a throw away line at the press conference in the WNBA press announcement of the aforementioned jersey sale, and the more I thought about it I thought there were two things we had to deal with, which was the media and the failure to congratulate. LeBron and I discussed it, and I'll leave the rest for him to talk about, but I think it was important. Certainly as it related to the media, we have a rule, you guys know that we've had some interesting issues over the years with some of our coaches and the like, and it was inappropriate for me to give someone a pass here.

Q. Bob Johnson said he's lost millions of dollars and he's looking to sell the Bobcats. I'm wondering what you think the situation is in Charlotte. Is Michael Jordan a viable owner? Is it a viable market for them to stay there? Any of those things?
STERN: I don't know what Michael's plans are, but I do know that Charlotte is an extraordinary market. It led our league in attendance for many, many years. It's got a terrific new building, and I'm sure that whoever the next owner is will fully realize the potential of the market based upon a very good start that Bob has made in bringing basketball back to Charlotte.

Q. As I'm sure you're aware, there was a congressman who made a statement yesterday regarding your over 19 rule, and there are obviously a few guys in the series being straight from high school guys. Curious what you thought of his remarks, especially the one where he referred to slavery?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: I'm going to count to ten on that remark, but I will say that I was more taken by his remark that he's thought about this for a while but he thought he would make this statement, issue a press release and then send a letter at this time so he would get more exposure during The Finals, and I agree with him completely that that's what he did.
But as to slavery, that would be like you saying that the talented people of the NBA, college graduates some, and talented graduates of many universities are not eligible to be congressmen because they have an age limitation of 25. So I don't know what he's talking about.

Q. As a follow up to the age limit itself, collectively bargaining obviously coming up fairly soon, you guys have talked about moving it to 20 and the union would love to repeal the limit in the first place. Do you see this being on the table?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Only to the extent that everything is always on the table, but it's not a deal breaker for us. We're very happy. What the congressman didn't understand, and we'll be happy to share our view with him, this is not about the NCAA, this is not an enforcement of some social program, this is a business decision by the NBA, which is we like to see our players in competition after high school. I don't know why our founders decided that age 25 was good for Congress, but I guess they thought that was about maturity, and for us it's different, it's a kind of basketball maturity, and there is the ability of players to develop one more year personally, but this is not about whether they should go to college or not.
I would add quickly that players have three routes: They can go to college Division 1A, Division II, whatever, junior college they can go to the NBA Development League, whose entry age is 18, or they can go to Europe. So this is not a mandatory direction by anyone that players should go to college.

Q. This is your 26th NBA Finals as commissioner and your 12th involving Jerry Buss, who's owned the team for the past 30 years. Can you talk about Jerry's impact on the league, especially with respect to making entertainment an awesome factor for all NBA fans and everybody who's interested in the league?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Jerry, quite simply, was a pioneer in understanding what the value of entertainment was in a community. That went to how people could consume it, what they would feel about it, and indeed, what they would be willing to pay for it, and what the players' value was. I remember when he gave Magic a $25 million contract. We had owners who wanted to have him committed, and indeed he recognized what the value was going to be, and it seemed like a low price very shortly thereafter. So Jerry understood everything, and I wouldn't be fair if I didn't add that he is a League first person on every issue as a member of the Board of Governors that we have talked about, negotiated about. In every context he's always put the League first, and often to another position would have been better for the Lakers financially.

Q. If economic conditions in the US don't improve significantly in the next 6 to 12 months, what are the ramifications for the teams that are struggling the most from a financial standpoint? And have you discussed remedies going forward?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Well, I think that we always have teams that do better than others. We expect next season to really have another record year, we hope, with respect to attendance. The reality is that we don't expect, we hope. The reality is there will be discounts and price cuts because we're trying to respond to what our fans are telling us, so our revenues will likely be down some percentage I can say, maybe as much as 10 percent. But that's a small amount in the landscape here.
We're continually discussing issues of revenue sharing, but we do have an increased revenue sharing program in, and we had a very good and robust discussion with the owners and executives session in our Board of Governors meeting, and I'm getting ready to schedule another executive session in the summer so we can come together and talk about all issues that are front and center.
But we've always had owners who do less well, and they have issues about how they're going to fund their teams. But we're doing pretty well.

OK, that's Part 1. Part 2 coming momentarily.

For one more night, at least, Shaquille O'Neal's self-proclaimed status as "most dominant ever" is quite secure.
That's because the Lakers managed to make Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard look fairly ordinary in their 100-75 victory in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, as Howard went just one of six from the field and finished with 12 points, although he did have 15 rebounds and a couple of blocked shots.
"Their inside game, which is a big part of their game, we were exceptional on that tonight," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson. "A lot of fouls for Dwight (he was 10 of 16 at the line), but nothing really in the lane."
Pau Gasol had some successful turns defending Howard, drawing two offensive fouls, the first of which was Howard's second foul, taking him out of the game with 2:23 left in the first quarter.
"You've got to make sure you mix it up with him," said Gasol, "keep a body on him at all times and try to make him catch a little farther off the low post and then move your feet. I was able to move my feet well around him -- don't allow him to feel me, get a feel for me. ...
"You have to be able to move around because if you let him hit you with his body, he's going to gain ground, and he's going to get that position."
Howard said the Lakers did indeed vary their approach.
"When I caught in the post," he said, "they really sat in my lap and they forced me to pass it out for guys to shoot, and they mixed it up. They forced me baseline, and when I tried to turn baseline, they had somebody waiting for me right there.
"I saw that during the game. I just wasn't patient enough to pick it apart. ... It's not about what they did. I think for us it's just our effort wasn't there."
Lakers center Andrew Bynum was, predictably, limited by foul trouble, playing just 22 minutes (and getting nine points and nine rebounds), but had some effective defensive work against Howard.
"He had some times out there that I thought he played him really well," said Jackson. "He did a good job defensively to try to cover the screen roll."
Said Bynum, "I tried to swing back every time on defense so he couldn't (get low post position. He's definitely going to come out very aggressive next game and try to pin everyone he can."

Other postgame quotes:
Howard, on Kobe Bryant's 40-point night, and Orlando's response:
"You know, when he's got everything going, every shot in the world, nothing we can do about that. The things we can do is play harder, play more aggressive. On the defensive end, go for more loose balls.
"We can control that stuff. But somebody making those unbelievable shots, there's nothing we can do about it."

Rashard Lewis, saying Bryant wasn't really the issue:
"Kobe's a great player. He's going to come out and play great. Was really hurt us was on the defensive end of the floor. The points in the paint, the rebounding really hurt us. Maybe next game we've got to take the ball out of his hands and try to make somebody else beat us, but they're a very talented team."
The Lakers outrebounded Orlando 55-41, and had a 56-22 advantage in points in the paint.

Jameer Nelson, asked if he thought he might be starting before the series is over:
"I doubt it. I'm not coming back to start. I'm coming back just to relieve Ray (Rafer Alston) when he needs a break and just do what the team needs. ... I think he's done a great job and no matter what, he deserves to start."

Trevor Ariza, on Orlando's 30 percent shooting (23 for 77):
"They didn't hit shots that they normally make, but I think we rushed them a little bit and got them out of their comfort zone.""

Derek Fisher, ask if that shooting was about Orlando's offense or the Lakers' defense:
"I think it's a combination of both. I think we made it hard for them to get to the spots where they like to operate. They have lots of good open looks at the basket, but at the same time the shots that we know they are making just happened to not go in tonight. They won't be shooting 29 percent probably again the rest of this series."

Back later (probably around midnight, after I'm home) with some of the David Stern press conference from earlier.

It's official: You'll see Jameer Nelson tonight.
The Magic point guard, who last played on Feb. 2, has been activitated for the first game of the NBA Finals and will "probably" play, according to Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy.
"In the end, we just think he's ready to go, think he can put some pressure on their defense, and we think he'll get better as the series goes on," said Van Gundy.
That bumps Anthony Johnson down in the guard rotation, and pushes former Lakers guard Ty Lue off the active list altogether.
"It was really, really tough," said Van Gundy, "to take two great veteran guys and tell Ty Lue that he was going to be on the inactive list ... and to tell Anthony Johnson, at least in the beginning here, that I was going to play Jameer ahead of him, when we've made it all the way to the finals without Jameer."
Lakers coach Phil Jackson said his team had not discussed Nelson "by name. We've discussed positions. ...
"Jameer obviously was playing at a high level," said Jackson, "but I think Rafer (Alston) filled in and almost in many ways was identical to what they wanted to have done."
Jackson was in something of a similar situation last year, bringing Trevor Ariza into the finals after he'd been sidelined for some time with an injury.
"It's a matter of how comfortable a player feels on the floor," said Jackson, "and you get a sense of that when they're out there, how they move through traffic, and they're playing unimpeded. They'll get a sense of that almost immediately, I would think?"
And how, Jackson was asked, did that work out with Ariza?
"I didn't think he felt comfortable," he said, "otherwise we probably would have played him more."
The boss speaks: Pregame activities for Game 1 also included commissioner David Stern's annual state of the game press conference -- it's still going on as I write -- and I know you'll be shocked to hear that everything is great in the NBA, that Stern considers this a game for the ages. Everything is always fine as Stern spins his way through this session, with the possible exception of the one here last year when he was dealing with Tim Donaghy fallout.
I'll pass along a few more of Stern's thoughts after the game, when there are no pregame time constraints, but Lakers fans might find particularly interesting his answer about Lakers owner Jerry Buss and his impact in the league, particularly in terms of incorporating entertainment into the NBA experience:
"Jerry, quite simply, was a pioneer in understanding what the value of entertainment was in a community. That went to how people would consume it, what they feel about it and indeed what they would be willing to pay for it. And what the players' value was.
"I remember when he gave Magic (Johnson) a $25 million contract, we had owners who wanted to have him committed. And indeed he recognized what the value was going to be, and it seemed like a low price very shortly thereafter.
"So Jerry understood everything, and I wouldn't be fair if I didn't add that he is a league-first person, on every issue, as a member of the board of governors, that we have talked about, negotiated about, in every context, he's always put the league first. And often another position would have been better for the Lakers financially."

If you're coming to Game 1, I'll repeat and add to my warning of yesterday: Bring large wads of cash for parking.
With the 3E gaming extravaganza next door at the Convention Center -- wrapping up at 6 p.m., right when Game 1 tips off -- the parking-lot entrepreneurs have exceeded my wildest estimation. That lot I parked in yesterday for $15, that was $20 when I left? Today it's $40. Needless to say, I didn't park there.
The good news is on Sunday, when they play Game 2, E3 is gone. The bad news is that historically, when the Lakers play on Sunday and nothing else is going on, the parking lots tend to gouge anyway, apparently under the assumption that Lakers fans all have money.
Gift report: Not that we're in it for the freebies, but when someone throws them your way, you don't usually say no. This year's NBA Finals might be an exception.
Since last year's media gift was pretty nice -- a carry-on suitcase, ideal for short media trips with a laptop compartment, etc. -- I stopped on the way in to Staples Center this afternoon to pick up this year's media gift. (It's only available at the media hotel in Hollywood). It is ... a pouch.
OK, it's actually supposed to be a padded laptop sleeve, but basically, it's a pouch, probably not worth as much as I paid for the parking at the Hollywood and Highland complex, and the beverage I bought to get validation to reduce the cost of parking.
Apparently, the economy is taking its toll on the NBA, too.

It's pretty clear the Orlando Magic are going to play the "no respect" card for all its worth during the NBA Finals.
More than aware that most people are picking the Lakers to win the title -- and that most people would have preferred to see Cleveland, not Orlando, come out of the East -- the Magic can enter Thursday's Game 1 with as big a chip on its shoulder as it desires.
"We've always been overlooked," said Dwight Howard, the hard-to-overlook 6-foot-11, 265-pound center. "We was overlooked in the first series against Philly, we were overlooked against Boston, were overlooked against the Cavs, and we're still overlooked. So we understand that.
"We don't want to be a team that everybody picks to win, because I think being on a young team, once everybody starts saying, okay, you're this and you're that, sometimes you tend to forget what got you there. So for us, everything we see, everybody picking against us, it motivates us. It drives us to do something greater."
The Lakers are using their loss in last year's finals as motivation, stressing that they don't want to do it again. Orlando, in its first finals appearance, is pushing the idea of thinking about the opportunity as if it may never come again.
"A lot of people play their whole careers and don't ever get a chance to make it this far," said rookie guard Courtney Lee, "so we're definitely treating it like it's never going to happen again.
"Coach (Stan Van Gundy) had a quote from Dan Marino where when we first got there he enjoyed it, and he made a quote afterwards saying if he got back again he would change everything that he did. He never made it back. So we're definitely looking at it like that."
Marino, the retired Miami Dolphins quarterback, famously played in just one Super Bowl, early in his career.
That's not the only motivation, though.
"Our motivation is greatness," said Howard. "We want to be a great team. We want to be considered as a great basketball team. This is a great opportunity for us."
Hedo-nism: If there's a surprise on the Orlando roster, its forward Hedo Turkoglu. Familiar to the Lakers and their fans from his time in Sacramento, he's blossomed in Orlando. In four seasons in Sacramento, he never averaged more than 10.1 points; in five with the Magic, he's always averaged at least 13.3, with the breakthrough the last two years: 19.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists in 2007-08, and 16.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists this year.
Van Gundy was asked what allowed Turkoglu to make that jump at his age.
"Well, he's not very old," Van Gundy said. "He's 30. ...
"I think Hedo, what's really happened to him can happen to a lot of guys in this league. It's opportunity. He's never really had a chance until the last two years to be a key guy that had the ball in his hands all the time with a chance to create both for himself and his teammates. ... There's the stars of this league who no matter what system or what team you put them with, are going to be great players -- Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Paul Pierce, LeBron James. I don't care what offense you run them with, those guys are going to be great.
"And then I think there's a lot of guys that can really thrive and do what Hedo has done if they're in the situation where they get the opportunity and the system they're in fits their skills and everything else. And I think what he's done is just taken great advantage of the opportunity he's gotten."
Rashard Lewis, the other Orlando forward who's not afraid to shoot from distance, said Turkoglu "is definitely a big factor in us being here.
"He runs the pick and roll, gets Dwight the ball, gets me the ball. He can finish at the basket but at the same time get other people open shots. ...
"People said I was a matchup nightmare last round, but he is, too."
Traffic alert: If you're a ticket holder for Game 1, be aware that the 6 p.m. tip-off is the same time that the 3E Electronics Expo -- a major event for gamers and other computer types -- wraps up its three-day run next door at the L.A. Convention Center. Expect traffic (of course) and perhaps some difficulties in finding parking, or at the very least inflated parking prices.
On Wednesday, a lot across the street from Staples Center that charges $8 on a quiet midday had upped that to $15 when reporters started arriving for the Lakers and Magic practices. By the time reporters left, the fee was up to $20.