|
May 23, 2008 - STAPLES CENTER - LOS ANGELES. The Lakers saw the opportunity to demoralize the current NBA Champions and they didn't doubted. After the Spurs tied it at 37 late in the second quarter, the Lakers played to the best of their possibilities and crushed San Antonio for a big win 101-71 at Los Angeles to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference FInals.
This time Kobe Bryant came out shooting (8 points in the first quarter) like trying to prove Bruce Bowen he can't be stopped. Kobe ended with 22 points on 10-for 17 from the field and 5 assists in 36 minutes. Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher rebounded from poor performances in game 1 providing the team toughness in offense, strong defense and points. Odom ended with 20 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks, Fisher added 11 points and 3 assists in 23 minutes. Jordan Farmar had a career playoff high 14 points and gave the team an emotional lift with an impressive block on Ime Udoka after chasing him in a fast break.
Pau Gasol added 10 points and 7 rebounds for the Lakers, who shot 54.9 percent to San Antonio’s 34.5 and outrebounded them 44-36.
The Lakers never trailed in this game 2 but it was a close game until a basket by Duncan tied the score at 37 with 2:14 to go in the first half. But with a layup from Gasol, a jump shot and a 3-pointer from Sasha "the machine" Vujacic and another layup from Fisher, the Lakers closed the half with a 9-0 run and a 46-37 lead.
And it only got worse for the Spurs in the third quarter. Like trying to erase the memories from the previous game's third period when San Antonio opened with a 14-2 run, Kobe scored 7 points in the first 2 minutes to led the way and with 9 minutes left the lead was as big as 16 points. Then came Manu Ginobili's first basket of the game. Popovich considered holding him out of this game because he's affected by an injured finger and a sprained ankle but he the Spurs can't allow themselves such a luxury.
Manu scored all his 7 points in the third but was ineffective again shooting 2-for-8 in 23 minutes after being 3-for-13 in the opener. After making him a starter in the previous 6 games, Popovich put him again in that strange situation of coming from the bench. A situation so ridiculous that a player of his caliber (All-NBA Third Team and with votes for the MVP) won the 6th Man of The Year this year. And Manu was not the only ineffective player for San Antonio, Tim Duncan had 16 rebounds but only 12 points on 6-for-14 shooting. Tony Parker had 13 points, missed 9 of 15 shots and had 4 turnovers.
The Lakers' ball movement was excellent, their defense impeccable and included 7 blocks, the bench contributed big and a fourth quarter that started 74-57 turned into an embarrassing blow out for the Champions who were outscored 14-3 and fell down to 88-60. Then it was just time to rest for the starters and the Lakers even had a chance go give Trevor Ariza, out since January 20 with a broken bone, some playing time.
Only 14 of the 222 teams to lose the first two games in a best-of-seven playoff series have come back to win, but the Lakers can't relax because that stat includes the Spurs in their matchup with the Hornets in this playoffs. The Spurs will try to recover themselves in games 3 and 4 that will be played in San Antonio, where they are 6-0 in the postseason and have won 20 of their last 22 games. |
LAL S.A. Game 2
