San Antonio started off the game with a 17-point lead determined to force a Game 6 and stay alive, but Los Angeles would not let that happen last night as they won Game 5, 100-92, and became the 2008 Western Conference Finals Champions. This is the Lakers 29th time in franchise history that they have made it to the NBA Finals and will now have to wait for whichever team that comes from the Eastern Conference: the Boston Celtics or the Detroit Pistons.I know I predicted that Kobe Bryant would have a monster game in Game 4, but I guess he wanted to have that special game in Game 5 instead. Last night the Spurs could not stop Bryant as he scored 39 points and literally picked apart the defending champions' defense all game long.
I know that the Lakers deserve to be in the NBA Finals, but what happened to the San Antonio Spurs? If someone told me that Los Angeles was going to get there in just 5 games against the defending champions, I'd say they were crazy. Manu Ginobili was San Antonio's x-factor if they were going to beat the Lakers in this series and he did not play well at all. He scored just 9 points in Game 5, averaging only 12.6 points a game in the Western Conference Finals when he averaged 19.5 during the regular season.
The Lakers definitely surprised me because when the Spurs get a big lead in a game like they did in Game 5 (17 points) and Game 1 (20 points), San Antonio usually come away with a win but that was not the case in this series. It really shows how confident the Lakers' players are in each other, because to be so calm in pressure situations for such a young team and believe they can overcome the biggest leads against the best teams like the Spurs, thats impressive.
Its funny because at the beginning of the regular season, it looked like the Los Angeles Lakers organization was falling apart. Bryant was demanding to be traded, the Lakers hadn't made it out of the first round in the playoffs since 2004 and they had no chemistry as a team. You really have to hand it to head coach Phil Jackson to keep this young team together and owner Jerry Buss to not trade Bryant and to make the the trade for Pau Gasol. In doing so, Buss changed the Lakers from an 7th or 8th seed playoff team to a championship contending team. Now Los Angeles is in the NBA Finals and prepared to win the 15th World Championship in their franchise history. Congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers, they are now the 2008 Western Conference Finals Champions, now go play like champions.
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