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Here's the LA Daily News' take:
Lakers don't measure up to Spurs
Turnovers, third quarter doom L.A.
By Ross Siler, Staff Writer
After meeting the San Antonio Spurs in the playoffs four times in his first five years as Lakers coach, Phil Jackson wasn't ready to rule out a return engagement and trip to the Riverwalk when he met with reporters at practice Wednesday.
"If we play well enough and survive," Jackson said, "we'll see them some place."
Those dreams of the Western Conference finals might have to be put off until next season, or maybe the one after that, after the Spurs took care of the Lakers 96-85 Thursday night at Staples Center and Jackson conceded the obvious.
"We're not quite good enough yet to stay with this ball club and make it a game," Jackson said.
What was supposed to be a measuring-stick game for the Lakers - the chance to record their first five-game winning streak since March 2004 - quickly turned into a multiplication exercise at the end of the third quarter.
As in, how many times could the Lakers compound one turnover with another. They had eight turnovers in all in the quarter as the Spurs went from six points down to 18 points ahead in a matter of minutes.
All Jackson could say afterward was, "They beat us to the punch."
To say nothing of Spurs guard Tony Parker, who blew past Lakers guards Smush Parker and Sasha Vujacic for one layup after another on the way to finishing with 19 points on 9-of-14 shooting.
Parker did it with a protective sleeve pulled over his bruised right shin. He didn't play in San Antonio's victory Tuesday over the Clippers, but the Lakers were powerless to stop him two nights later.
The longest shot Parker made all game was a 10-foot floater after the Lakers had closed to 85-76 with 6:29 left and had just brought Kobe Bryant back off the bench.
"They busted us open with their penetration," Bryant said. "We had a tough time handling that all night. We didn't cover the basket very well."
Bryant finished with 23 points on 9-of-26 shooting, making only 3 of 11 shots in the second half, and had six of the Lakers' 18 turnovers. Tim Duncan finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds for the Spurs after a slow start.
For all the trouble they have had in the third quarter, the Lakers came out of halftime and took off on a 9-2 run. Bryant converted a three-point play, Kwame Brown drew a third foul on Duncan and Bryant found Beano Cook for a 3-pointer.
But the Spurs called timeout, regrouped and did what championship teams do in closing the quarter on a tide-turning 19-2 run.
If it wasn't one thing, it was another for the Lakers. Cook caught a pass with both feet out of bounds. Smush Parker threw one ill-advised alley-oop pass to Brown and another pass behind Bryant and into the seats by the bench.
Parker was removed for Vujacic with four minutes left in the third and made the slow walk to the bench. He did not return in the fourth quarter.
It was all the opening the Spurs needed. Robert Horry knocked down a 3-pointer, Tony Parker picked the ball out of Luke Walton's hands and raced the other way for a layup, and Bruce Bowen and Brent Barry followed with 3-pointers.
"I thought we got forceful," Jackson said, "and guys got out of the concept of what we were trying to get accomplished out there and had some problems."
Unless they slide to eighth in the Western Conference standings, meanwhile, the Lakers likely won't face the Spurs in the playoffs this season. San Antonio is now 56-16; the Lakers fell to 38-35.
The two teams are expected to take their place on opposite sides of the playoff bracket and would meet only if both advanced to the conference finals, which the Lakers would have to win two playoff series to do.
The Lakers broke through with their first victory over the Spurs since the Shaquille O'Neal trade earlier this month at AT&T Center. But Jackson wanted to see what his team could do with three days off and a home court to defend.
"This is a good measure of what we would see in a playoff situation," Jackson said before the game.
Props to Kobe for not making excuses or ing about Bowen after being held to "only" 23 points.
