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LOS ANGELES: Kobe Bryant scored 25 points but made his biggest moves
defensively Sunday to sustain the championship dreams of the Los
Angeles Lakers and deny the Boston Celtics their first title since
1986.
The National Basketball Association Most
Valuable Player made a critical steal off Boston’s Paul Pierce and
finished the play with a slam dunk in the final seconds to help seal
a 103-98 victory in game five of the NBA Finals.
“We needed that because we needed to get an
easy hoop,” Bryant said. “As soon as I noticed the ball was
exposed a little bit it was important for me to go after it.”
Lamar Odom added 20 points and 11 rebounds while
Pau Gasol had 19 points and 13 rebounds as the Lakers pulled within
three games to two in the best-of-7 series to force a sixth game
Tuesday in Boston. Game seven would be Thursday.
“We’re two wins away from winning a
championship,”Gasol said.“But we know that without the first
one, we’re not going to get to the second, so we focus
tremendously on Game 6 because it’s going to be super hard to get
that one.”
No team has recovered from a 3-1 deficit to win
the NBA finals, but the Lakers have confidence they can force a
seventh game Thursday and win it.
“We’re young enough and dumb enough to be
able to do this,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said.
A superb Pierce scored 38 points but was undone
after grabbing a rebound and dribbling upcourt with Boston trailing
97-95 in the closing seconds.
Bryant tapped the ball to teammate Derek Fisher,
who flipped it back to Bryant for a breakaway slam dunk.
“He made a great defensive play,” Pierce
said. “He reached around to take the ball from behind. Kobe is a
great player. He made two big steals in the fourth quarter I
shouldn’t have allowed. It hurts—a tough one to swallow.”
Bryant scored 15 points in the first quarter but
had only gone 2-for-12 from the field until his slam dunk with 37
seconds remaining. Bryant and Fisher hit free throws in the final
seconds to clinch the triumph.
“The important thing is for me to push the
buttons at the right time,” said Bryant.
“The key is setting the tone if we’re going
through a drought, make the correct play and generate energy for our
ballclub.
“That has really become my role now more so
than in the past where it was 35 or 40 points.”
After Pierce shut down Bryant late in Game 4,
Bryant returned the favor in a do-or-die game for the Lakers.
“He came out and set the tone, had a lot of
energy out there, got a rhythm going, got confidence built, just
played an overall stellar game,” Jackson said. “Defensively in
the fourth quarter he said let me take Pierce.”
Ray Allen added 16 points but rushed from the
arena due to a health issue with one of his children while Kevin
Garnett added 13 points and 14 rebounds for the Celtics, who missed
a chance to claim their first title since 1986.
“We still had a chance to win this game. We
let it slip right through our fingers,” Garnett said.
“My play? It was trash. I played like garbage.
I can do better than that and I will.”
The Celtics played without center Kendrick
Perkins, who was sidelined by a strained left shoulder but said he
expects to be ready for Game 6, and guard Rajon Rondo struggled.
-- AFP
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