After a six-game war with the Denver Nuggets in the 2009 Western Conference finals, the Los Angeles Lakers were back in the NBA Finals, ready to avenge their loss there the year before to the Boston Celtics.
There was one small problem: The Celtics weren’t able to make it back. Not even LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who had the league’s best regular season record, earned the right to be there.
Instead, the Lakers faced the Orlando Magic, a very good team that featured star center Dwight Howard, who had just won his first of three consecutive Defensive Player of the Year awards. But the Magic weren’t nearly as formidable as Boston.
Kobe Bryant didn’t care. He was determined to win the world championship, whether he had to defeat the Celtics or Barstow Community College’s junior varsity squad.
From the outset of Game 1 of the finals, he put his own personal stamp on the series. As the second quarter progressed, it became clear Bryant wasn’t going to let the game be competitive.
He had 18 points at halftime as the Lakers led by 10, 53-43. In the third quarter, he put the game away with another 18 points.
The Black Mamba finished with 40 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, and he was the driving force behind a 100-75 win.
By the end of Game 1, the NBA Finals had taken on an aura of inevitability, as Bryant, and the Lakers by extension, looked almost superhuman, at least compared to the mere Magic.
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