LOS ANGELES — So much for just being anti-climatic. If this keeps up, the NBA finals could veer toward being simply unwatchable.

Stan Van Gundy surely wanted to put his hands over his eyes in the fourth quarter Thursday night as the Los Angeles Lakers mopped up what was left of his Orlando Magic. He had seen more than enough of Kobe Bryant, more than enough of a surprisingly tough Laker defense that kept Superman from getting airborne.
“There was nothing I liked,” Van Gundy said. “What was there to like?”
David Stern might have said the same thing. The NBA commissioner did his best just before the game to hype the finals as a fitting climax to one of the league’s best seasons ever, though he was probably secretly waving the pom-poms for the Kobe-LeBron matchup that never came.
Like it or not, the simple fact is this was not the finals everyone wanted to see. The Magic made sure of that by knocking off one superstar before heading here to take on another.
But at least they figured to make it interesting. How couldn’t they after showing that they knew how to handle a one-man team like the one that surely awaited them at the Staples Center?
The problem wasn’t just that the Magic didn’t have an answer for Bryant. Not many teams do.
They didn’t know what to do with the rest of the Lakers either.
The result was a blowout that had to send Nike and ABC executives into a deep funk. The beautiful people at courtside were having a ball, but televisions across the country had to be tuning out by the beginning of the fourth quarter with the Lakers comfortably on their way to a 100-75 rout.
Yes, Bryant was spectacular, taking over the game by scoring 30 points in the second and third quarters. But Orlando had seen this before with James.
Yet just when the Magic were supposed to show they really belonged, they rolled over when it counted the most.
“I think as a team we came out flat and our energy just wasn’t there,” Dwight Howard said.
Just why that happened will be the subject of debate over the next few days, and certainly the topic of conversation among Van Gundy and his assistants. They will look at stat sheets that show scary things, like 30 percent shooting as a team and Howard taking only six shots and making just one of them.
If they look real close they’ll see something else, too. These Lakers may be led by a superstar, but on this night they played like a team.
Give Bryant credit for that, too, even if he didn’t draw up the game plan that had Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol creating havoc around Howard. Phil Jackson did that, and it’s a big reason why he will most likely end up with a record 10th NBA championship team.
None of that would matter, though, if Bryant wasn’t able to take charge when he wanted to. He scowled and soared his way to 40 points, and his teammates eagerly climbed on for the ride.
“I just want it so bad, that’s all,” Bryant said.
James wanted it badly, too, yet Orlando was able to dismiss him and the Cavs because they matched up well with the rest of the team. If Game 1 was any indication, though, they’re going to have trouble with just the sheer amount of talented bodies the Lakers can put in the middle to counter the inside game of Howard.
“We were able to stop the penetration fairly well tonight,” Jackson said. “Their inside game, which was a big part of their game, we were exceptional tonight on that.”
Van Gundy said before the game that he wasn’t intimidated by Jackson and his record in the championship series, and wasn’t awed by Jack Nicholson or any of the celebrities courtside. He acknowledged that Bryant could do a lot of damage, but was confident that his team, which jelled at just the right time, believed in its own abilities.
It was a different story in the locker room after the game when he told the team that they needed to improve, and so did he. They had to play better and he had to come up with a better game plan if they were to have any hope of evening the series 1-1 Sunday night.
Was it possible that his team, which wasn’t supposed to be here, was nervous? Maybe just a bit jittery?
“That’s one of the stories that you write ahead of time and you have ready to go if a team doesn’t play well,” Van Gundy told someone who dared ask that question. “It’s the simple cliche psychology stuff that you write.”
That’s true, but sometimes it really is that simple. Sometimes you don’t need to dig any deeper to find out why a team that looked so good last week looked so bad on this night.
One thing that is for certain is that there isn’t much time to figure it out.
Another loss on Sunday and the Magic go home with their fate all but sealed.