Los Angeles Lakers became the champions of the Western Conference and classified to the NBA Finals after beating San Antonio Spurs 4-1 in the last round of the west. Some decisions of the referees may have influenced on this outcome. After the fourth game, the NBA admitted that officials made a mistake when they did not call the last foul made by Derek Fisher on Brent Barry when he made a 3-point shot. The 3 free throws could have meant the victory for the Spurs and the2-2 in the playoff aggregate.
But the fact is that the Lakers have only lost 3 games since the playoffs began, and that fact has also been important for the physical condition of the players. They were quite more rested and that was decisive to come from behind in the score in several difficult moments, especially in the first game. We must remember as well that San Antonio arrived to the final after defeating New Orleans in very tough 7-game semifinal. The Californian squad comes back to a final 4 years later after they lost roughly in 2004 against the Pistons (4-1). That was a reason for Phil Jackson to leave L.A. and for Bryant and O’neal to “get divorced”.
Kobe Bryant has been a decisive player one more time able to win a game almost by himself. In this final he has averaged 29.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.6 steals, with a 53% in field goals. 17 of his 39 points in the last game arrived in the final quarter; and in the first game he had 27 after scoring only 2 points in the first half. Fans said lots of things about Kobe against a tough defender like Bruce Bowen before the conference final, but a curious fact is that Kobe had 11 free throws in the 5 games against Spurs and 96 against the Jazz in 6 games. With this or that defender, with fouls or without them, he has shown again his motivation and his ambition that are automatically the same that his team’s.
