Finals yielding fewer hard fouls

You can never predict how physical a playoff series is going to be.

After being involved in conference finals matchups that featured lots of physical play and high numbers of hard personal and technical fouls, the Finals have been a lot more about finesse for the Magic and Lakers.

While it could be a product of referees being more prudent in blowing the whistles for the Finals, the fouls numbers entering Game 4 seemed to suggest that both teams have avoided the rough stuff this series.

Through the first three games of the Finals, neither team had been whistled for a technical foul.

In the Lakers’ Western Conference finals series with Denver, there were 18 technicals called, and seven in the Orlando-Cleveland matchup.

Personal fouls were roughly the same from last round to this point, but the hard fouls had disappeared.

In crowning champions, the on-court substance needed to hoist the trophy has come in different styles and undergone several incarnations.

That has been true from the speed of the Showtime Lakers in the 1980s to the bruising Detroit Bad Boys in the latter part of the decade, to a return to finesse starting with the first Chicago three-peat to begin the ‘90s.

It’s why Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy isn’t worried whatever direction this series takes before it ends.

“I’ve always thought that there are a lot of different ways that you can win a championship and different ways to play,” he said. “And in the end it goes down to whoever is able to play the game the best.”

Although there isn’t the banging going on under the basket, Van Gundy said that it doesn’t mean the play is any less physical through his eyes.

He just thinks that defending a player like Kobe Bryant, who attacks in so many different ways, breeds different types of fouls.

“Kobe’s more physical than anybody we put on him,” Van Gundy said. “So if you think you’re going to be physical with Kobe, he’s stronger than anybody we have on him. It’s not a matter of that, you just have to play hard, make him work as much as you can.

“On our fouls we have to be more disciplined. We’re leaving our feet on shots, reaching in when he’s going in to shoot three-pointers.

“You can’t stop a lot of the things he does, but you don’t have to give him those types of fouls.”

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khightower@orlandosentinel.com.