If you're the Orlando Magic you look around the room and say "it's only one game and we can't play any worse right?"

It was ugly if you were cheering for the Magic as they were blown out 100-76 and shot the ball horrendously in Game 1 on Thursday. Orlando managed to score a mere 23 field goals in the entire game and shot a decrepit 29.9% from the floor. Dwight Howard was not the only culprit playing poorly on the offensive end as he did not get much help from all of his mates. Rashard Lewis was 2/10 from the floor while Hedo Turkoglu was 3/11 and Mickael Pietrus managed only a 5/13 performance. But many will point to Howard who managed to make one more field goal than you did from your couch watching the game.

Yes the Magic can point to the blowout in 1985 where the Lakers were run off the court in Boston by the Celtics in the famed "Memorial Day Massacre" and then came back to win the series, and the NBA title. But as Jeff Van Gundy rightfully pointed out, the Lakers had three hall of fame players and a great supporting cast. Needless to say it becomes imperative that Orlando gets a split in these first two games. By this account, if you look at the numbers in the middle three games and the record of the team without home court advantage as it was mentioned in the last entry leading up to Game 1, Game 2 is a must win for Orlando. I still maintain that if the Magic are planning on winning this series they are going to have to win twice in Los Angeles.

But there's more bad news for Orlando. When Phil Jackson's teams win the first game of a playoff series, in any round of the post-season over his entire tenure as a coach in the NBA, his teams are 43-0. And to make matters worse, that dude, Kobe Bryant, who served them a career playoff high 40 points in game one is historically good for an average good for a 30.1 point per game on the follow up. That's right, following a 40 point output Kobe is good for 30 the next game.

So what happened in Game 1 to make it look so easy for Los Angeles? Here are a couple things to keep an eye on in Game 2. The interior play of the Lakers was a key as offensively the Lakers did a good job with the "big to big" interior passing just throwing over the top of Orlando defenders for easy scores inside. Defensively, as we saw on the two occasions that the Toronto Raptors defeated the Magic this season, the Lakers are simply staying between Howard and the basket while only selectively doubling teaming him. This allowed Laker defenders to stay attached to the three point shooters and more readily contest shots.

Dwight Howard needs to be more aggressive when he gets the ball to help his team. His passiveness on block when getting the ball on the inside did not help free up Orlando's shooters for better looks at the basket. Howard did not attract a double team and force Los Angeles to rotate and possibly lead to better shots for Orlando's three point gunners. There were times in the second half when the ball was entered to him on the block and he immediately pitched it back out to the perimeter without even as much as a look over his shoulder. Following the "kick out" pass, Howard did not re-post and work for better position. I mean all that was missing was the Meadowlark Lemon like screams as he couldn't get the ball back to the perimeter fast enough.

The Magic have to rebound better being dominated on the glass 55-41 and this must be better in game two. But then again you can't rebound when you are rotating because you have allowed penetration. Interestingly, the Lakers, particularly in the second half, only seemed to employ their famed triple post a.k.a. triangle offense when Bryant was not on the floor. That led to good player and ball movement but with Bryant handling the ball when he was in the game, Los Angeles screen and roll game was devastating.

But that's the great thing about the playoffs. It's not just one game and adjustments will be made. Stan Van Gundy admittedly said that he leaned to heavily on Jameer Nelson, so expect to see that change. As Dwight Howard said, the video session was revealing following the loss. We'll get a chance to see what the Magic learned in Game 2.