Reply With Quote
Vujacic is an overrated and he didn't shut down Manu, Manu was off tonight. He's a poor man's Manu who can't handle the ball or drive the lane half as well as Manu can.
By JOHN NADEL, AP
LOS ANGELES (AP)—Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers waited until the third quarter to get going. Once they did, the San Antonio Spurs couldn’t stop them.
And the defending NBA champions contributed to their own demise with a brutal, uncharacteristic fourth-period performance.
Bryant scored all but two of his 27 points after halftime, including a go-ahead, 10-foot jumper in the lane with 23.9 seconds remaining, and the Lakers rallied from a 20-point deficit to beat the Spurs 89-85 on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.
“Kobe, he was doing a trust-his-teammates thing in the first half,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “That’s why he had five assists, and he was checking it all out and see where his territory was going to be. In the second half, he went to work.
“Obviously a difficult loss and we had a great opportunity. We didn’t take advantage of it. Hurts like .”
“I know I can make that push and I knew once I did, I could get the game back under control, get it under 10 where we knew we could be in striking distance,” Bryant said. “In the first half, we were a little rusty, a little sluggish and a little tentative. Second half, it wasn’t there.
“It is big for a young team to come back from 20 against the defending champs.”
Defensive specialist Bruce Bowen held Bryant in check in the first half, but it didn’t last.
“Kobe put them on his back,” Bowen said. “We had an excellent opportunity, and we let it get away. I’m very disappointed.”
Game 2 will be played Friday night before the best-of-seven series shifts to San Antonio for the third and fourth games. The Lakers are 7-0 in the postseason at Staples Center, where they’ve won 13 straight games overall.
Bryant’s jumper put the Lakers ahead for good after two free throws by Manu Ginobili with 1:22 remaining and a follow shot by Tim Duncan with 41 seconds left tied the game at 85. After Bryant’s basket, Ginobili missed a 3-pointer and Sasha Vujacic made two free throws with 7.3 seconds to go, completing the scoring.
The Lakers outscored the Spurs 24-13 in the fourth quarter, when San Antonio shot 3-for-21, including 1-for-9 from 3-point range.
“We almost gave up home-court advantage to a great effort by the Spurs,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “That was a big comeback. We were deep in the hole, there was no doubt about it. Twenty down and half the quarter gone in the third period. It was a struggle to fight back into the ballgame by the end of the third quarter.”
Pau Gasol had 19 points and seven rebounds, Vujacic and Vladimir Radmanovic scored 10 points apiece, and Lamar Odom had eight points and eight rebounds for the Lakers.
Duncan led the Spurs with 30 points, 18 rebounds and four blocked shots. Tony Parker had 18 points, 10 rebounds and six assists; Bowen scored 12 points, and Ginobili added 10 for the Spurs.
Ginobili shot just 3-for-13, and Jackson credited Vujacic for his defensive work on the Spurs’ star.
“Sasha had an assignment out there tonight and he played Ginobili very well,” Jackson said. “Offensively, Sasha had a lot better games, but defensively, that was one of his best.”
Vujacic played a career playoff-high 31 1/2 minutes.
The well-rested Lakers hadn’t played since Friday, when they beat Utah to advance to the conference finals for the first time in four years. The Spurs advanced by winning at New Orleans three nights later, but their flight to Los Angeles was delayed several hours and they didn’t arrive at their hotel in suburban Santa Monica until Tuesday morning around 9 a.m.
“No one gives any excuse,” Parker said. “We were in pretty good shape, had a great lead. We had a great chance to win the game and we just didn’t play well enough in the fourth quarter.”
Popovich also said the plane debacle had nothing to do with his team’s late-game problems.
“They probably wore us down to some degree, I’m sure,” he said. “And then, with that, we made very poor decisions. The ball stopped moving. Shots at the end of the clock, no penetration to the rim, all jump shots and they deserve credit for that and they came back and had a of a win.”
Two straight baskets by Bryant cut San Antonio’s lead to three points with eight minutes remaining. Bowen made a 3-pointer with 7:38 left, but the Spurs went stone cold at that stage, going scoreless for nearly 6 1/2 minutes.
The Lakers took advantage, scoring 10 straight points for a four-point lead. Bryant put them ahead for the first time in the game by making two foul shots with 2:42 left, and added a jumper 24 seconds later following a turnover to make it 85-81.
The Spurs outscored the Lakers 14-2 to start the third quarter for a 65-45 lead, drawing groans from the crowd of 18,997 at Staples Center, where the Lakers haven’t lost since March 28.
Suddenly, the Lakers came together, scoring 14 straight points in a span of 3:05 to draw within six. Bryant had seven points and two assists during the run.
Ginobili’s 3-pointer ended a four-minute scoreless drought, and the Spurs led 72-65 entering the fourth quarter.
Duncan dominated the inside in the first half, getting 16 points and nine rebounds as the Spurs took a 51-43 lead.
Notes
The Lakers are 52-7 when winning Game 1 in a best-of-seven series.
The Lakers have beaten the Spurs in seven of their previous 10 postseason matchups, including all three in the conference finals. …
The teams are meeting in the playoffs for the sixth time since 1999, but the first since 2004, when the Lakers prevailed in six games in the conference semifinals. The Lakers didn’t win a postseason series from 2005-07.
Jackson has an NBA-record 188 postseason wins, while Popovich has 100, tied for the third-most in league history with Larry Brown. Pat Riley is second at 171.
Jackson-coached teams are 40-0 when they win the opener of a seven-game series.
San Antonio’s Robert Horry has won seven championship rings—two with Houston, three with the Lakers and two with the Spurs.
The Lakers have won 17 of their last 19 Game 1 home playoff games, and 19 of their last 22 home playoff games overall.
Vujacic is an overrated and he didn't shut down Manu, Manu was off tonight. He's a poor man's Manu who can't handle the ball or drive the lane half as well as Manu can.
Manu's been off lately, I'm not sure whats up with him,
but he seriously needs to snap out of his funk.
The Spurs needed him in the 4th quarter and he couldnt
answer the call.
If the spurs dont play for 48 mins, they wont win jack.
The lakers hung in and actually caught up in the same quarter
where they were down 20.
Spurs played well for 32 mins, but they forgot who they were
afterwards.
Lakers won this game with a bit of help from the spurs, but this
gives the lakers something to hang their hats on.
Kinda like game 1 from the spurs and suns series.
Let's just hope we dont have a repeat of that series for the sake
of the spurs.
Free Bonner
I'm not sure that Vujacic is overrated. Sure he's overrated being "The Machine" but that's more of a just a joke.
Vujacic is 6'7 and something like 190 pounds, he's really quick on his feet for his size and a good defender. Thing about him is he's probably the most irritating defender on the Lakers if not in the whole NBA. I'm not sure what it is he does but most players want to punch him before the night's done.
Vujacic caused some of Manu's bad night but it was mostly Manu's lingering injuries I think.
disappointing loss for sure, but nothing the Spurs can't handle. and i'm surprised at how many Spurs fans are worried. the lakers don't present near the match up problems as do the hornets. nothing the lakers did impressed me...in fact i thought they looked soft. gasol, odom, etc...were ing weak. i'm not saying they can't/wont play better...i'm saying it doesn't matter.
you can chalk it up to whatever you want...the Spurs were tired or they choked or they pulled one of their famous disappearing acts...whatever. in the end, the Spurs will show up.
frankly, i'm disappointed in laker fan, which says a lot...cause the bar wasn't high. should laker fan be happy with the win?...yeah sure. confident about the series?...hardly.
...talk to me after game 2.
What's he dissapointed for? Him and his team have
never played KOBE BRYANT well.
This game changed when Bowen picked up his 3rd foul in the 3rd quarter and had to go to the bench. That's when Kobe went off, and by the time Bowen came back in (not till the 4th) Kobe had already started to heat up, and the Spurs lost their rhythm and momentum.
That won't happen again. I like the Spurs' chances to win Game 2, and to win the series. Sort of reminds me of the last game in the reg season against Phoenix. Means nothing. The Spurs won't let the Lakers back in the game like that again.
LOL. You must have never watched a basketball game before. That's the most idiotic thing I've heard in weeks.
Sure you have... it's Princess Pimp, aka the Board Sybil, with his nineteenth iden y.
i agree
Kobe had a impressive second half but was one of his poor nights last night
Manu played really bad last night but he and the spurs looked tired and slow at the end of the third quarter.
If they doesn´t have a little rest then the series is over.
That last 3 Manu hoisted up looked like he could barely get it off. He looked terrible out there with the way he played and the he looked. Those cross court passes leading to Laker fastbreak points don't usually help matters either when you are playing an opponent on the road who is making a comeback.
Vujacic's best asset is his spunk.
Kid's not afraid. Give him his props.
Spurs got game 2
man Odom was off last night, i cant wait until this sweep is over so we can play the Celtics
Let's get 4 f-ing straight now, DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!! This is over in maximum six games!
They should be disapointed. Steve Nash said after Game 1 loss to the Spurs that it was a kick to the groin.
This loss could have the same affect on the Spurs.
Agreed. But what I still don't understand is why it took so long to re-insert Bowen. He should have been back in there, 3 fouls or no. What were we saving him for?
Is Bruce disappointed that Pop sat him in the third quarter while Kobe was starting to go off?
I love overconfidence.
Nice handle, btw --> TD-old&busted
They should be disapointed. Steve Nash said after Game 1 loss to the Spurs that it was a kick to the groin.
This loss could have the same affect on the Spurs.
If the Spurs are as mentally weak as those s, then they don't deserve to win a friggen campionship.
As much as it is disappointing, I still woke up this morning confident the Spurs will pull this out. Bruce did a good job on Kobe. Yeah, he went off, but most of that was on Ime. Ime is better guarding Odom because of his strength.
Horry also did a good job on Odom. Pop will figure it out. I wanted to reach out and grab Pop by the throat for letting up in the 3rd with that whack lineup, but he's Pop and is bound to have a brainfart from time to time.
Vujacik did a good job on manu. But it was one of those Manu nights that like someone said, Steve Nash could have done a good job on Manu.
Midway through the 3rd quarter, the Spurs developed a classic case of "Maverick-itis". With a 20 point lead they start standing around on offense firing up jump shot after jump shot with only one player (TD) actually keeping them in the game. Manu filled the Josh Howard role by firing up an entire truckload of bricks. Then Kobe finally starts playing on the offensive end and an almost sure road win turns into a gut-wrenching loss. Spurs fans start complaining about the refs.
I remember this feeling from the 2006 Finals and D Wade. Hopefully, the Spurs will handle it better than the hapless Mavs did.
Game 2 should be interesting.
Yeah thats all he should be disappointed about. He played damn good D on Kobe Tai.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
