Lakers 106 - Spurs 85

After winning a playoff atmosphere game against New Orleans the other day and winning, the Lakers had another playoff atmosphere game at Staples against the San Antonio Spurs. The Lakers came into the game tied with the Hornets for the top seed in the West and the Spurs came in a half game behind the leaders and had a chance to actually get on top in the West here themselves. The Spurs blew their chance though as the Lakers beat them 106-85 as the Lakers claimed the sole possession as the number one team in the West, a half game ahead of New Orleans. Much talk has been talked lately about the tough Western Conference and Laker fans should know that if the Lakers and Hornets were to tie for the best record in the West, the Lakers would win because they had a better record against the Conference this season, the two teams tied the season series against each other with each winning 2 games each so the next step in determining this is the teams records against the Conference. After this loss, the Spurs are no threat to getting that top spot and then you have the Houston Rockets who everyone just kind of forgot about. If they were to win the remainder of there games and the Lakers lost their final game of the season against the Sacramento Kings then the Rockets would tie the Lakers record and would actually win because they won the season series against the Lakers. This Western Conference race really has everyone confused but who cares because when the Lakers beat the Sacremento Kings on Tuesday they will clinch that top spot, damn right I have that much confidence. The MVP, Kobe Bryant will see to that, damn right he will be the MVP this season and I'm also fully confident of that!

Unfortunately for the Spurs, they did not have one of their key players, Manu Ginobili had to sit out the game because of a strained left groin. Even with him though, this game would not have been any different. San Antonio is still a very good team and a competitive team. Yes, they are getting older now and Tim Duncan is by no means a washed up player or anything but his time and the Spurs time is over. It will be a while before you see the Spurs win another championship.

The Lakers on the other hand looked like they were having fun out there on the court and just have that look like they are destined to get to the NBA Finals. Everybody on this Laker team knows their roles, there is just awesome chemistry between these guys.

The Spurs did OK during the first half of the game as the score was tied 53-53 at the half but when the third quarter started Derek Fisher had 10 points in a Lakers 17-6 run and from that point on San Antonio just couldn't play with the Lakers anymore. Kobe Bryant hit a buzzer beater three pointer to end the period on a nice pass from Pau Gasol to build the Laker momentum even more and at the end of three the Lakers had an 79-67 lead. The Spurs only scored 14 points in the third period. In the fourth quarter the Spurs scored only 18 points for a total of only 32 points in the second half. The Lakers started the fourth with a 19-5 run, good for a 98-72 advantage and all of this as Kobe and the other Laker starters rested in the fourth except for Lamar Odom who has been so valuable to the Lakers in this final run of the season. Lamar played extremely well in the first half and finished the game with 17 points and 14 rebounds. The Lakers had well balanced scoring between everybody as Bryant led the team with 20 points, Lamar as mentioned had 17, Gasol and Fisher each had 14, Farmar had 11 and Turiaf had 10.

For the Spurs Parker had 20 points and Duncan had 16. The loss dropped the Spurs in the standings but with this wacky Conference I guess it don't matter much, everyone is going to have a tough first round series.