Game 1

My older son, who we'll call Basketball Jones for now, has got me sucked into caring about the NBA Finals. So why not live blog it to make it interesting?

8:50 P.M. - Still in pre-game. They just announced that Jeffrey Osborne will sing the national anthem. Cool. Although somewhat lyrically embarassing, his "Stay With Me Tonight" is one of the great lost songs of the 80's, a slice of funky rock as brilliant as anything Prince was doing at the time. Shame about the cheesy video, however.

9:00 P.M. - Jeffrey did a solid job with "The Star Spangled Banner", with only a minimal amount of vocal embellishment. Great choice on the key, it allowed him to be strong but not screechy on the high notes.

9:10 P.M. - Nice left-handed floater by Dwight Howard. But what I really want to see is Dwight dunk so hard over Pau Gasol that it makes Marc Gasol cry.

9:20 P.M. - Hey Magic, let's just say Tony Battie from 18 feet is not one of your better offensive options. According to my list, it's number 247, just after Dwight Howard taking a fadeaway corner 3-pointer.

9:30 P.M. - First celebrity shots coming out of the time out. Maria Shiver and her lethal jawline, Bill Russell and of course, Jack. My guess is Phil Spector probably won't make it tonight.

9:33 P.M. - Why does Rashard Lewis have a dead C57/black lab mouse taped to his chin? Good luck charm?

9:35 P.M. - End of the 1st quarter. Magic up 2. Biggest play of the quarter, Pau Gasol's Shane Battier-quality flop to get Dwight Howard's 2nd foul.

9:40 P.M. - Rashard for 3. Maybe the dead mouse soul patch is lucky.

9:42 P.M. - I was just about to write about how Lamar Odom appears to have shown up tonight, with 4 points off the bench early, and then he just drove in and passed it to a point equidistantly 2 feet from 3 Magic players and at least 15 feet away from the nearest Laker. Maybe he shouldn't have had that third roll of Necco wafers before the game.

9:45 P.M. - Jameer Nelson, playing for the first time in over 3 months since a shoulder injury, has come off the bench en fuego, and just made Phil Jackson use a time out. With him back and effective, the Magic become a much more offensively dangerous team.

9:55 P.M. - Stan Van Gundy just called his 2nd time out in the last couple of minutes. Since they don't have anybody who can stop Kobe, he better get somebody out there who can make some shots to try and keep up.

10:00 P.M. - Mikael Pietrus finally hits a three. Meanwhile, after a unbelievable, shake-and-bake fadeway moon-ball, Kobe has 16, looking like he's on his way to 45. That's fine for the Magic, as long as no other Laker hits double figures.

10:00 P.M. - No way the Magic can win if they don't score 100. Considering it's almost halftime, and they've got 41, it doen't look good.

11:40 P.M. - 100 - 75. Ouch.