Game 5 / Lakers 111 - Jazz 105 / Lakers never trail and beat the Utah Jazz and take a 3-2 series lead.

The home teams continue to dominate in this years playoffs and the Lakers didn't want to be the ones to change that and they didn't, it sure was close though. The Lakers really made Laker fans sweat this one out or should I say the Jazz made the Lakers and Lakers fans sweat this one out. The Utah Jazz proved tonight that they can be a worthy opponent by taking this game down to the final minute before the Lakers could close this game out. The Lakers held on to the win by outscoring the Jazz 8-2 in the final minute.

The Lakers, who never trailed, can advance to the conference finals for the first time since 2004 with a victory Friday night in Utah. But if form prevails, the teams will be playing a seventh and deciding game Monday night at Staples Center, where Los Angeles has a 17-3 record against the Jazz since the arena opened before the 1999-2000 season.

Kobe Bryant had 26 points in the game and said that he felt OK. He also said that in game 4 when he was playing that he had never felt so much pain in his life. Kobe did distribute the ball a lot in tonights game and set up his team mates.

Odom had 22 points and 11 rebounds, Gasol added 21 points, six rebounds and eight assists, Vladimir Radmanovic scored 15 points and Derick Fisher added 14 for the Lakers, who were 17-1 during the regular season when all five starters scored in double figures.

All five Utah starters also scored in double figures led by Deron Williams, who had 27 points and 10 assists.Carlos Boozer added 18 points and 12 rebounds, Ronnie Brewer scored a career playoff-high 16 points,Mehmet Okur had 13 points and 13 rebounds, and Andrei Kirilenko scored 12 for the Jazz.

A three-point play by Odom with 6:19 remaining gave the Lakers a 97-91 lead. But the Jazz battled back, and a 3-pointer by Williams as the shot clock wound down moved the Jazz within one point with 2:18 left.

That would be as close as the Jazz would get.

A dunk by Odom put the Lakers ahead by three points before Okur’s basket made it 103-102. Gasol scored the game’s next four points to put the game away.

I will say that the Jazz are making the Lakers give their best in this series. If you think about it though, if the Lakers had won that overtime game in Utah then this series would have been over.