After helping the Los Angeles Lakers win an NBA title in June, Trevor Ariza reportedly signed a five-year, $33 million deal with Houston.

Trevor Ariza disclosed on Monday that the Lakers never made a serious effort to re-sign him and owner Jerry Buss had his sights set on Ron Artest when the free agency period began.

“From my understanding, they told me that my work was like the mid-level or whatever, and to go find an offer and they’ll match it. The next day, I heard Artest had dinner with Buss and came to an agreement,” Ariza told Los Angeles radio station KLAC-570.

Artest reportedly signed a three-year contract worth $18 million, which amounts to $6 million per season. Final terms of the deal could not be finalized until next season’s salary cap is announced.

Just hours after the Artest signing, Ariza agreed to terms with the Houston Rockets for a reported five-year, $33 million deal, which amounts to a little more than $6 million a season. In short, the Lakers replaced the underrated Ariza with the more established Artest.

“It is what it is. I thank the Lakers for giving an opportunity to play for a championship,” Ariza said. “Things happen and it’s all part of business. I really don’t think I did anything wrong in this situation. They signed Ron Artest, and there’s not much I could do.”

Ariza, who turned 24 years old on June 30, admitted he never wanted to leave Los Angeles and his desire all along was to play for the Lakers. However, the Lakers had other plans.

“I mean, what kid from L.A. would want to leave L.A.?” asked the former Westchester High School and UCLA standout. “The business side is not always the pleasant side. You’re not always gonna like what you hear.”

During the regular season, Ariza averaged 8.9 points per game, 4.3 rebounds and was among the league leaders in steals (1.7). The 6-foot-8 small forward also converted a career-best 61 3-pointers. In his previous four seasons, he made just nine 3-pointers.

His stock soared during the playoffs, becoming a critical cog to the Lakers’ machine that delivered L.A. its 10th NBA championship and the 15th trophy for the franchise. His defense and timely outside shooting were key factors in the Lakers eliminating Utah, Houston and Denver in the Western Conference playoffs and zooming past Orlando in the NBA Finals.

After the championship parade where nearly 90,000 Laker fans at the L.A. Coliseum begged Ariza to stay, Ariza and his agent David Lee were led to believe the team was working on a long-term deal that would keep Ariza in a Lakers uniform. But contract talks never got off the starting blocks and Lee was heavily criticized for trying to “bluff” his way to getting more money for his client. When Ariza agreed to the $33-million deal offered by the Rockets, the prevailing thought was he chose money over winning.

Ariza claimed that was not the case at all.

“There wasn’t any negotiations. There was no, ‘We’re willing to give you this,’ ” Ariza explained.

“Me, I’m a competitor. I always want to win in anything. I love to win and I’m gonna do everything I can to win,” he said. “I had to do what’s best for me. At the end of the day, it’s a business.”

Ariza was not the only one who was taken by surprise. Lakers coach Phil Jackson said last week that he was not given an “either/or” when it came down to deciding between Artest and Ariza.

“I knew we had Ron on our wish list for, what, three years now? And we needed a lockdown defender besides Kobe Bryant that would take on the chores,” Jackson said. “Trevor turned out to be that guy this year. So I was quite surprised, as was most of our fans, that negotiations did not go well with Trevor and his people. We think that we have a player that has probably a little more dimension to Trevor, but still Trevor has that youth and that speed that we’ll miss.”

Despite being hugely disappointed he won’t get a chance to play for his hometown team, Ariza says he does not have any ill feelings toward the franchise or the teammates he left behind.

“Of course there’s not gonna be any hard feelings. Everybody wished me the best of luck and they said they were always going to be there for me, and that gave me a good feeling,” Ariza said. “What’s done is done and you move on.”

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Derek Fisher and Kobe Bryant are one victory away from earning their fourth NBA championship ring. (GETTY IMAGES)

Move over Robert Horry. Step aside Steve Kerr and John Paxson. Make room for the newest member of Mr. Clutch in the NBA Finals: Derek Fisher.

When Fisher stepped into those two crunch-time shots in the fourth quarter and in overtime that powered the Los Angeles Lakers to a 99-91 victory in Game 4 of The NBA Finals, he simply planted his name into basketball lore. Kobe Bryant will most likely be the most valuable player of the The Finals, but Fisher just etched his image as the true defining moment of the 2009 Finals.

With 11 seconds left and the Lakers down by three at 87-84, Orlando decided to double team Bryant in the backcourt and rolled the dice, hoping for a miss. As soon as Trevor Ariza broke the Magic press and gave it to Fisher at midcourt, the 34-year-old savvy guard and a member of three Laker championship teams stepped into the vacuum provided by Bryant and unleashed a 3-point shot over Magic guard Jameer Nelson. It would have been one of the greatest shots in Finals history, only to be topped by Fisher in overtime when he drained a 3-pointer from the top of the arc that gave the Lakers a 94-91 lead with 30 seconds remaining in the extra session.

Two classic shots from a man who exudes class in every which way. Thanks to Fisher, who had missed his previous five 3-pointers before making his last two, the Lakers are one victory away from winning the franchise’s 15th championship banner, Phil Jackson’s record 10th title as coach and Fisher and Bryant’s fourth ring.

“In a championship run, you gotta have moments where you just need big plays. Tonight was one of them. Trevor made a big three, Derek obviously made two big ones. That’s what the journey is about,” Bryant said.

Where does Fisher’s shots rank among his individual accomplishments?

“Maybe 100, 101, something like that,” Fisher joked. “Naw, obviously, personally in the last couple of years, leaving this team and playing with these group of guys, it ranks up there at the top. Even greater than .4 because I feel like we’re as close as possible to our end goal.”

I have a responsibility to my team that if I’m going to be on the floor then I have to make a difference. None of us can’t continue to expect Kobe’s gonna save us. We have to be willing to take responsibility, accountability. I felt bad because Pau was kicking it out to me for some wide-open threes that I was missing. I promised him that I was not gonna miss those shots anymore even though Kobe was the guy who passed it to me, the last one I hit, I thanked Pau for warming up my elbow.”

Speaking of elbow, it was Bryant’s right elbow that knocked Nelson to the floor that allowed Fisher to step into an open 3-pointer with 30 seconds left in OT. As Fisher jogged back, he had the look of a champion.

“I just sensed it was the dagger. That was the one that would put us in a position to close out the game,” Fisher said.

It was similar to the play that Michael Jordan made during the 1997 NBA Finals when he drew a double team and kicked it out to Kerr, who swished a jump shot at the top of the circle that ultimately knocked down the Utah Jazz and gave the Chicago Bulls ring No. 5.

When Fisher was asked if he now considers himself a Mr. Big Shot, ala Robert Horry, he said he’s a few rings short of joining Big Shot Bob.

“I definitely don’t compare myself to Robert Horry. I’m quite a few rings shy of where he stands. He’s in his own category,” said Fisher, who credited his teammates and Phil Jackson for sticking with him despite his early struggles in the game. He finished with 12 points in 42 minutes.

“Just the way he’s willing to stick certain people that he believes can get the job done, and that is not always about statistically what this guy’s gonna bring to the table,” Fisher said of Jackson. “When this guy or these guys are on the floor together, as a coach he’s confident in those five guys’ ability to win a game. We had that type of group before, where it was myself and Kobe and Robert, and Rick Fox and Shaq. Those were the five guys, I don’t care who we were playing, those were the five guys who were gonna finish a game. With Trevor Ariza’s development, we have that five guys now that consist of Pau, Lamar, Trevor, Kobe and myself, we’re kind of becoming those five guys that when the game is on the line, more times than not, those are the five guys you’re gonna see out there.”

On the shot that sent the game into overtime, Fisher said the play was initially designed for Bryant, which was to be expected.

“The ball will always be in Kobe’s hands down the stretch unless the defense does something to take it away. When they trapped him, he kicked it up to Trevor and then he kicked it up to me,” Fisher explained. “Initially, I didn’t catch the ball cleanly so I wanted to make sure I gained control of the ball. I checked the clock really quick, as I continue to kinda dribble one dribble, two dribbles, three dribbles, I just noticed that Jameer was backing up and backing up and backing up and I just decided to go up and shoot. I felt like I had the space he wasn’t close enough to deter me from shooting. In that split second, I made the decision and it worked out better for me.”

If Fisher was the main hero of the game, there were too many guys who got the goat tag and all of them were on the Orlando side of the court, starting with Magic coach and ending with Nelson.

“We thought 11 seconds was too early [to foul], especially with the way we were shooting free throws,” said Van Gundy, whose team was 22-for-37 from the foul line in Game 4 and was 11-for-19 in the fourth quarter and in overtime.

“In retrospect, we gave him so much space to shoot the ball. We played him like we tried to prevent the layup,” Van Gundy continued. “We denied Bryant the ball, but we just didn’t play Derek Fisher. We didn’t guard him. It was my decision not to foul, and yes I regret in now but only retrospect. To me, 11 (seconds) was too early. I’m gonna have to look at it again.

“That will haunt me forever. We could have played that a lot better.”

In a postseason that has seen Orlando get victimized by big-time, game-winning shots in each round, Fisher’s shots will ultimately be the ones that will leave the deepest scars for Van Gundy and the Magic.

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Rafer Alston, aka Skip to My Lou, scored 20 points and helped point Orlando to a 108-104 victory in Game 3.

The Orlando Magic finally won a game in the NBA Finals after failing six times and, at least for one night, made NBA followers believe that they have a shot against the Los Angeles Lakers in this series.

When you break down Game 3, the Magic won, 108-104, not because Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis or Hedo Turkoglu played lights out, or even because Kobe Bryant showed his vulnerable side. The Magic broke into the win column mainly because of the man they call Skip to My Lou.

When you check the box score, you see that Howard and Lewis each scored 21 points and Turkoglu hit his playoff average with 18 points. As you go down the list you notice Rafer Alston had 20 points. Bingo! That was the difference.

“I was aggressive from start to finish,” Alston said. “I was able to mix it up. That’s what I do best instead of just standing on the 3-point line. That’s what you guys saw in me the first two games, standing on the 3-point line, as if I was Ray Allen or somebody. Tonight I was able to penetrate, get to the foul line, shoot the pull-up jumper, shoot the three, find open men.”

As Rafer Alston, the Magic point guard has struggled with his shot and found himself competing with Jameer Nelson for minutes in Game 1 and Game 2 – both Laker victories.

As New York City streetball legend Skip to My Lou, who showed up in Game 3, the Magic point guard played 36 minutes, made eight of his 12 shots, swished his only 3-point attempt and his push-the-pill-up-the-court approach was the biggest reason why Orlando shot 75% in the first half and 62% for the game.

“Skip did a good job of attacking and allowing guys to get open for free shots. We have to do that against a team like the Lakers. Make them move and try to get easier shots,” said Howard, who easily played his best game of the series with 21 points, 14 rebounds and sank 11 of his 16 free throws.

Notice that Howard referred to him as Skip and not Rafer.

Howard knows that when Alston is skipping with the ball and plays as Skip to My Lou, his game turns into an And 1 Mix Tape and his swag permeates through the rest of his teammates.

“Skip to My Lou got us started early in that first quarter,” Lewis said of his starting point guard, who gave Orlando another scoring threat besides Howard, Lewis and Turkoglu.

“We played with more speed, more energy on the offensive end,” Alston said. “A lot of pick and roll, which is our game, and find Dwight. The bad thing is we shot 62 and a half percent and almost lost the game. We gotta find a way to defend these guys, stop fouling Kobe on 3-point shots and pull-up jumpers.”

Magic coach Stan Van Gundy took a lot of heat for playing Nelson too much in Game 1, which many observers say disrupted his team’s flow. But Alston said there was never a moment where he was upset with Van Gundy for his point guard rotation.

“He told us he was looking for somebody that maybe get out there find a rhythm, maybe stick some shots,” Alston said of his coach. “First two games, myself and Jameer were struggling to do so. Stan and I have a great relationship. He understands that he’s just trying to coach to win games; I’m trying to play and help him win games and help this team. Never once took it personal.

“In the first game, I just said it was a rhythm thing and never had that done before, never played like that. Second game, I was able to find a flow but not hit shots. Tonight I was able to make shots,” added Alston, who was 3-for-17 from the field and had just 10 points in the first two games of the Finals.

“The guard play was great. Rafer got off to a good start and played very, very well; played with great confidence,” Van Gundy said. “We still turned the ball over too much, but the guard play was clearly much, much better.”

And the reason for Alston’s turnaround?

“You have good games and bad games. Rafer has bounced back well in the playoffs before. He’s had some great games in the playoffs and he’s had some other games that weren’t as good. That’s just sort of the way it goes. I don’t think there’s any big psychological mystery to the whole thing,” Van Gundy said. “The one thing that you can’t question with our team is our resilience. I thought we held our composure pretty well.”

Speaking of composure, when the ever-honest Van Gundy was asked again about the motivational push that got Alston going in Game 3, he sarcastically replied: “I’m a motivational genius. That’s what I am. I thought for two days about what to say to him and I said, ‘Play your game.’ Took me two days to come up with that.”

If Alston keeps “playing his game,” the Magic might actually push this series back to Los Angeles. “This league is a make or miss league,” he said. “First two games, I’m missing and I look horrible. Tonight, I’m making and I look good.”

Van Gundy agreed.

“When the ball goes in, those look like really good shots,” the Magic coach said. “And when they don’t go in, you say ‘Wow, they’re not getting any good shots. When the ball is going in 62 percent of the time, those are great shots.”

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Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy has exhausted every option in this series, and still finds his team down 0-2. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

Game. Set. Match. The NBA Finals are officially over. The Los Angeles Lakers absorbed the Orlando Magic’s best shot and still pulled out a 101-96 overtime victory in Game 2 of the NBA Finals to take a commanding 2-0 series lead.

The percentages do not favor Orlando as only three teams in the history of the league have been able to climb out of an 0-2 hole in the Finals: The 1969 Boston Celtics, the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers and the 2006 Miami Heat. The ‘06 Heat is also one of just three teams to sweep the middle three games (the Detroit Pistons did in 2004 and the Lakers pulled it off in 2001), something Orlando needs to do just to stay afloat in this series.

So, to say that the Magic is in deep trouble is the understatement of the season. They basically have one foot in the grave, and Coach Stan Van Gundy appears to be running out of options.

The Magic got a great game out of Rashard Lewis (34 points, 6-of-12 on 3-pointers) and still lost. It got a great game out of Hedo Turkoglu (22 points, 8-of-17 from the field) and still lost. Van Gundy exhausted every possible combination on the court, drew up a great play at the end of regulation and still lost.

“We tried some different things. I’m not sure I’ve got another lineup to throw out there that you haven’t seen now,” Van Gundy said. “We played with no point guard, we played conventionally, we played Rashard at the three, we played Hedo at the two. We played Hedo at the one, two and three. We played Rashard at the three and four. We played big. What did they say? You keep throwing stuff at the wall and hope something sticks.”

The Magic had chances to win, but Van Gundy pointed out the 41% shooting and the 20 turnovers ultimately doomed them. The Magic guards shot 6-for-26 for the game and center Dwight Howard was responsible for seven of Orlando’s 20 turnovers, another reason to call him Blankman instead of Superman despite scoring 16 points and grabbing 17 rebounds. To avoid a Lakers sweep, Howard needs to play like a real superhero and stop looking at the referees for help.

“Yeah, I was frustrated,” Howard said. “Being a leader of my team, my teammates cannot see me frustrated. I gotta played through all the different situations and learn from them.”

After two games, Kobe Bryant is playing like a Finals MVP and Dwight Howard has been very ordinary.

Orlando played much of the second half with Turkoglu at the point, benching Jameer Nelson and Rafer Alston. After his brief shining moment in the second quarter of Game 1, Nelson has not been much of a factor in the Finals, which was to be expect since he has not played since February. Alston, however, does not have an excuse. Skip to My Lou has been skipping these past two games. He was 2-for-9 for six points in the Game 1 and followed that with a 1-for-8 effort in Game 2 and scored a measly four points.

“I thought Rafer was playing well. They’re just leaving him open on every post up and couldn’t get the ball in the basket,” said Van Gundy, whose team was 33-for-79 from the field and got just 17 bench points. L.A.’s Lamar Odom (who scored 19 points) outscored Orlando’s bench by himself.

“We were searching for somebody to make a shot. Obviously, we didn’t find anybody,” Van Gundy continued. “I thought, for the most part, L.A.’s defense was good and I thought our guards had very good open looks. We just couldn’t knock anything down. I thought they got plenty of shots. I don’t think it was much trouble getting our guards shots. They’re not guarding them. They’re only guarding three guys.”

The Lakers mainly focused their defense on Howard, Turkoglu and Lewis and took their chances on the “other” guys. J.J. Redick was 2-for-9, Mikael Pietrus was 1-for-3 and Nelson was 1-for-3. When asked how he can fix the problem, Van Gundy answered: “I don’t have any idea on how to fix that.”

The Magic player who feels worse than Alston is rookie guard Courtney Lee, who missed a layup with 0.6 left in regulation that would won the game for Orlando. The missed opportunity ended up biting the Magic as the Lakers outscored them 13-8 in overtime.

“We missed it. I don’t know what else to say,” Van Gundy said. “We executed well, Hedo made a great pass and we missed it.”

When a reporter commented on the fact that Van Gundy has done everything he can to win the game, the Magic coach replied: “I wouldn’t say that. We win and lose together. It’s not me doing everything and our players not getting it done. All we did was try a lot of stuff today.”

All Van Gundy and his staff can do now is avoid getting swept.

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Dwight Howard made just one of six shots from the field in Orlando's 100-75 blowout loss to the L.A. Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. (GETTY IMAGES)

Hey, Dwight Howard. Shaquille O’Neal just sent you a message on Twitter: “I want my nickname back!”

In Game 1 of the NBA Finals with the whole world watching his every move, the self-proclaimed Man of Steel of the Orlando Magic was completely undressed and reduced to a mere mortal. He made just one of his six field goal attempts in his Finals debut – a far cry from his 40-point superhuman effort in the series-clincher against Cleveland – and 10 of his 12 points came from the free throw line. He did grab 15 rebounds, but you expected that from him. What the Magic did not expect was his ineffectiveness on both ends of the court.

When you want the general public to call you Superman, you cannot have a bad day. If Superman had a bad day, Lex Luthor would rule the planet and there would be complete chaos.

At the end of the day, Howard went from being Superman to Blankman.

The Los Angeles Lakers were able to blitz the Magic, 100-75, because they outrebounded the Magic, 55-41, and outscored them, 56-22, in the paint to take a commanding 1-0 lead in the series. It’s a commanding 1-0 lead because Phil Jackson is 43-0 when he wins the first game of a series and Kobe Bryant quite simply will not allow his Lakers to lose.

The Lakers’ domination of the paint was more of a reflection on Howard’s inability to put his stamp on the game. If Howard, aka Blankman, is supposed to be the best big man in the NBA then the league must have some really bad centers because the 23-year-old NBA first-teamer looked very ordinary. For a guy who is the reigning top defender in the league, Howard did a very poor job of protecting the basket. For a guy who makes 56% of his field goals and leads the league in dunks, Howard was outscored by Mickael Pietrus (14 to 12) and failed to throw down a single dunk in 34 minutes.

During his best years, Shaq would bust through arm tackles and take two or sometimes three people with him to the rim and unleash one of his signiture throw downs. Howard was held down by Pau Gasol, who is not exactly the most physical player in the league.

When Laker big men Andrew Bynum and Gasol took away Howard’s dunks, the Orlando big man began shooting blanks. His shortage of inside moves was magnified.

“He has to work on getting another move,” said Gary Payton, who now works for NBA TV. “Bynum and Pau Gasol are very good. They can play defense and they can go at [Howard]. What they did was, Bynum started off from the beginning. He went at him. Then, all of a sudden, Gasol started guarding him and he gets two offensive fouls on him. That takes you out of your basketball game. [Howard] has to understand that he has to face up guys, get a Tim Duncan bank shot or something like that, or get another move.”

Because Blankman could not punish the Lakers’ single coverage in the low post, the Magic shooters struggled mightily from the perimeter, making just eight of 23 threes (34%) and shooting 29% overall. Hedo Turkoglu was 3-for-11, Courtney Lee was 3-for-10, Rafer Alston was 2-for-9 and Rashard Lewis was 2-for-10 and scored just eight points, the first time he has been held under 15 points in the playoffs.

“If you can play Dwight Howard straight up, not allowing him to get dunks and make him finish his shots in the lane, you have a good chance of beating this team,” said Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw, who has scouted Orlando all season.

Basically, Shaw revealed that the Lakers’ game plan on defense was to stay with Orlando’s snipers.

“You live by the bomb, you die by the bomb. That’s our philosophy,” Shaw said. “Everybody talked about how we’re going to match up with their 3-point shooters. Well, they have to match up with us on the inside. We play inside out. And we feel like we have an advantage because we can make Dwight Howard guard Pau Gasol or Andrew Bynum inside and that means Rashard Lewis has to guard the other one as well.

“So, if we keep that as our focus, that’s putting a lot of pressure on them defensively,” Shaw continued. “The more we can play Dwight Howard straight up we can match up with their shooters, and if they keep bombing from the outside we’ll live with that.”

The Lakers’ convincing victory in Game 1 revealed two things: Orlando is not going to win a championship and Dwight Howard is just a civilian posing as Superman.

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