NBA FINALS: GAME 1

Chris Webber, who played for five teams, but never the Lakers or Orlando Magic, and was a five-time NBA All-Star, is now an analyst for NBA TV and is serving as a guest columnist for the Los Angeles Times and Orlando Sentinel during the Finals:

Experience counts, and bringing back an injured player who hasn’t been part of a playoff run for the Finals doesn’t work, according to Chris Webber.

“You know this is a surprise because Orlando was so good until now, but then it isn’t a surprise because Orlando just got here.

“You evaluate their expressions before the game and you think that for Orlando to match that [Lakers] intensity, against a team that has been here so many times, it’s hard. It’s a different thing, the Finals, and you look around, Kobe has been here before, Phil Jackson has been here before.

“You can’t overrate experience or sometimes naivete that you don’t know what to expect and you just go out and play. That works sometimes. But experience usually wins out, and I think that made a big difference tonight. The expressions on the Lakers’ faces, especially Kobe’s, those were a winner’s look.

“I thought the biggest mistake for Orlando was playing Jameer Nelson that much. If Orlando had taken Nelson out after those first three quick assists in five or six minutes, then you could build on that, you know, ‘We brought a guy back, he played great, we played great.’ There would have been a little success. Now Jameer’s going to be second-guessing himself, the team’s going to be second-guessing itself, I think the coach is going to be second-guessed. I wonder about that decision.

“It looks like the way the Lakers are playing now, the series won’t be back in L.A.”