It's the Lakers vs the Magic, and I'll admit I am surprised. Not because of the Lakers, they shouldn't surprise anyone. Ton of talent and one of the best players in the history of the NBA.

The Magic though. Here's a team with an incredibly gifted, incredibly raw star leading a bunch of three point shooters which lack a particularly potent defense (outside of Howard). Not your usual finals material, even from the East.

Howard's issues are numerous. He has no shot, I mean none. This guy looks like Shaq shooting free throws from anywhere outside dunk range. He doesn't seem to understand that getting one more block a game is NOT worth going out early every game because of foul trouble. He has a horrible habit of dropping his hands at the last second so refs call the foul on contact when otherwise he'd likely get a no-call. Obviously going back to shooting his FT% is bad. To be fair, he's been much better than usual in the playoffs. He typically doesn't take advantage of mismatches with people who can't keep up with him physically.

The Cavaliers certainly had a matchup issue against the Magic, but don't be fooled. It wasn't the fact that the Magic had one more big guy that made them lose. It was the brick buildings being constructed by Lebron's supporting cast all series long. I don't know how many times I saw guys miss consecutive wide open jumpers on a kick-out.

But moving to the Lakers and Magic. I like the Lakers a lot in this series. The physical matchups are much better than with Cleveland.

Kobe is fully capable of stopping a player like Hedo, especially since he always gets the ball at the point. Depending on the lineup though, you might even have Odom down on Hedo, if you want to see Lewis dropping 3s on Pau.

I think the real question mark in the series is if Howard can abuse the Lakers soft(Pau) and inexperienced(Bynum) big men the way he took care of the Cavs in the final game. If he can, the Magic just might have a chance.

I don't think he can, so I call the Lakers in game 6.