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SAN ANTONIO—The
events of Tuesday night weren’t as indelible as the
renowned “0.4” shot, but Derek Fisher was in the thick
of another improbable victory against
San Antonio.
The
Lakers were leading, barely, in an ever-tightening
fourth quarter when Fisher called the other four
starters to the side after a timeout.
His
forceful delivery conveyed a simple message: We’re not
coming back here for Game Six.
It
looked like the inspirational talk of the year, and then
it looked as if it were all for naught, but the final
score showed the Lakers holding off the Spurs, 93-91, in
Game Four of the Western Conference finals Tuesday at
AT&T Center.
The
Lakers lead the best-of-seven series, 3-1. Game Five is
Thursday at Staples Center.
“I was
just saying that I believed we were going to win this
game,” Fisher said. “I told them, ‘We earned this game.
Let’s go claim it. If we want to be champions, we’ll win
these five minutes.’”
The
Lakers won the first four minutes after Fisher’s words
and then almost squandered a seven-point lead in the
final minute, but Brent Barry, bumped by Fisher, was
wide right on a three-point attempt at the buzzer,
preserving the Lakers’ two-point edge.
It was a
scintillating end to a game the Lakers led from start to
finish, a line that is almost becoming redundant in the
playoffs. The Lakers have now won four of their last six
games without ever trailing.
The
pattern was almost predictable—the Lakers took a lead,
the Spurs caught them, the Lakers extended the lead
again.
Kobe
Bryant had 28 points and 10 rebounds, and Lamar Odom and
Pau Gasol rebounded from poor Game Three efforts. Odom
had 16 points and nine rebounds. Gasol had 10 points, 10
rebounds and six assists.
The
Lakers took a big win from
San Antonio,
evoking images of their May 2004 victory over the Spurs
on Fisher’s improbable shot while washing away the taste
of a 19-point defeat in Game Three.
“It’s a
big step for us,” Bryant said. “Game Three was an
opportunity to learn in terms of how hard we need to
play, the speed we need to play with. We came out and
did a much, much better job to win in this building in
this particular game. It’s big for us.”
It
didn’t come without its perils, which seemed unlikely
after the Lakers took a 93-86 lead after two free throws
by Odom with 56.5 seconds to play.
But Manu
Ginobili made a three-pointer, Gasol missed two free
throws, Bryant missed a lay-up without killing much of
the clock, and Odom was called for goaltending on Tony
Parker’s lay-up attempt.
Referees
then ruled that Fisher’s 17-footer did not hit the rim,
meaning the Lakers were left with two seconds on the
shot clock.
Bryant’s
hurried 16-foot fadeaway was short, giving the Spurs the
ball with 2.1 seconds left.
Fishy
(non-)foul?
Fisher,
of course, was involved in the final play of the game.
The
Spurs tried to win on a three-point attempt by Barry.
There was contact on the play after Barry drew Fisher
into the air with a pump fake, but the referees did not
make a call.
“I
really didn’t think, ‘Uh-oh, I’m in a bad spot here,’”
Fisher said. “He comes into me at the same time I’m
coming down. Honestly, I thought it was a great noncall.”
So did
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.
“I think
it was a proper no-call from what I just saw [on
replay],” he said. “What else do you want me to say? If
I was the official, I wouldn’t have called that a foul.”
Either
way, the game belonged to the Lakers, who are a victory
away from their first trip to the National Basketball
Association Finals since 2004.
Lakers
coach Phil Jackson was already warning his players.
“They
certainly can’t rely on home court. They’re going to
have to go out and play a ballgame,” he said.
“We’re
back at it in less than 48 hours. It’s important we come
out there and play a similar type of game that we played
[Tuesday], with the kind of energy that we had. That
will win the ballgame for us.”
Despite
missing the final shot, Barry was a force off the bench,
scoring 23 points in 27 minutes. He made five of 12
three-point attempts. Ginobili, on the other hand,
dropped from 30 points in Game Three to seven points in
Game Four.
The
Spurs simply couldn’t keep pace.
“Every
time we had a chance to get close, they hit a big three
or got a big rebound and they just kept scoring,” Parker
said.
In the
end, the Lakers had ended
San Antonio’s
perfect 7-0 home record in the playoffs.
A Lakers
fan sitting behind the basket held up a sign that said,
“It’s the start of a new era.”
He might
be right.
…As if
there’s no tomorrow
WALTHAM,
Massachusetts—Doc
Rivers wants his players to start listening to Pistons
forward Antonio McDyess.
It
wouldn’t hurt if they started guarding him, too.
McDyess
had his best game of the postseason in Detroit’s Game
Four victory over Boston, then reminded his teammates
that they can’t afford to squander an opportunity to win
a championship. A day later, Rivers cited McDyess and
suggested that the Celtics could also learn from his
message.
“I think
the veterans really get that. I think the young ones
always think there’s another opportunity,” Rivers said
after practice on Tuesday. “The whole thing is to show
them how close we are, the sense of urgency they have to
have. Because the other team has it.”
McDyess
had 21 points and 16 rebounds—both playoff highs—to lead
the Pistons to a 94-75 victory over the Celtics on
Monday night and even the Eastern Conference finals at
two games apiece. The best-of-seven series returns to
Boston on Wednesday night for Game Five.
“[McDyess] knows that you can’t take any of this for
granted,” Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. “Some of our
guys have been in six straight conference finals, which
is an amazing achievement, but for some of our guys,
this is the first time.
“Dice
knows that, at this point of his career, it could always
be his last. And all our guys need to realize that. You
can’t just expect there to always be a next time.”
Comforts
of home
Celtics
forward Paul Pierce, who made just three-of-14 shots on
Monday night, passed along the same message to his
teammates.
“We
don’t get this opportunity too much in our careers,” he
said after practice. “We have to go out and play like
it’s our last, because you never know when this is going
to happen again. … We have to find some way, somehow, to
get a win at home and bring that momentum back to
Detroit.”
Being at
home was a considerable edge for the Celtics in their
first two rounds, when they advanced without winning a
single game on the road. Detroit swiped home-court
advantage with a victory in
Boston in Game Two, but the Celtics took it back by winning Game
Three.
Despite
a bad Game Four for the trio of Pierce, Ray Allen and
Kevin Garnett, at least the Celtics know they do not
have to win in Detroit again to eliminate the Pistons.
But they no longer have the security blanket of that
perfect home record.
“They
never panic, especially Ray, Paul and KG. They’re always
poised,” center Kendrick Perkins said. “They never talk
negative, even after the loss they stayed positive. It
was, like, ‘Don’t even worry about it. We aren’t losing
any more games at home.’” (With AP) |
