May 29, 2008 - 10:40 AM
3 shoutsSan Antonio at LA Lakers 9:00 pm EDT Western Conference Finals Lakers lead series, 3-1
LOS ANGELES (Ticker) - The defending champion San Antonio Spurs nearly pulled off a miracle comeback. Instead they are facing the daunting task of climbing out of a 3-1 hole.
League MVP Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers seek to eliminate the Spurs on Thursday in Game Five of the Western Conference Finals and advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2004.
Bryant had 28 points and 10 rebounds and the top-seeded Lakers avoided a monumental late-game collapse to notch a 93-91 victory in San Antonio on Tuesday - the Spurs' first home loss of the postseason.
It nearly did not happen though. San Antonio trailed by seven points with 50 seconds left, but some shoddy late-game management by the Lakers let them climb back into it before Brent Barry missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Barry, who scored a playoff-high 23 points, pump faked and appeared to fouled by Derek Fisher, but there was no call.
"We didn't manage the clock well at the end of the game, and we almost suffered the consequences for it," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said.
"We just didn't quite get it done, so now we have a lot of work ahead of us," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of the comeback attempt.
Surprisingly, Barry agreed with the non-call.
"That is not going to get called," Barry said. "Derek Fisher made a great defensive play. There was contact for sure, but I don't think I ran through him. I didn't initiate any contact. ... I never thought they would call a foul."
Not surprisingly, Bryant agreed with Barry's assessment.
"No way," said Bryant when asked if it was a foul. "Not with all the contact that was going on during the game."
Bryant, a three-time NBA champion, did not attempt a free throw Tuesday despite taking 29 shots.
Now the Spurs are now facing a nearly unsurmountable deficit.
"This is our first defeat here, and we had a hill to climb being down 0-2, and now we have Everest to climb being down 3-1," Barry said.
The Lakers are looking to advance to the Finals for the first time since 2004, when they lost in five games to the Detroit Pistons.
From the Bleachers
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SAN ANTONIO: 92
LOS ANGELES: 100
Final
May 29 11:46 PM -
SAN ANTONIO: 63
LOS ANGELES: 64
End of 3rd
May 29 11:02 PM -
SAN ANTONIO: 48
LOS ANGELES: 42
Halftime
May 29 10:16 PM -
SAN ANTONIO: 28
LOS ANGELES: 15
End of 1st
May 29 9:41 PM
