Dave McMenamin is live blogging Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and Spurs. Boxscore Photos Aftermath:As the Lakers congregated at halfcourt after beating the Spurs 4-1 to advance to The Finals for the first time since Shaq was still a 20 and 10 guy, there was a look of unbridled joy on Kobe Bryant’s face. This is what he always wanted. His team, playing with the same vigor and passion that he does, sitting just four wins away from his fourth ring – a ring that would sure to be sweeter than the other three because this one would come on his shoulders. Anybody is happy when they win a playoff series. I don’t want to make too much of this smile, I mean, D.J. MBenga and Ira Newble had wide grins on their faces too, but Kobe’s was just a little different. To see a guy who normally wears a scowl on his face from tip-off to final buzzer like a soldier wears camouflage look that genuinely happy, was, well, unprecedented. Have we ever seen Kobe this happy? When the Lakers had their threepeat, Kobe was in his early 20s and had to look cool when L.A. won. It was the Big Aristotle’s team and he was saying things like, “Can you digggg itttttt!” at the celebration parades. For O’Neal, it was a party. For Bryant last night, it was a payoff. He had the same satisfied look on his face that I imagine a carpenter to have when he sands the last rough edge off of the wooden rocking horse he painstakingly crafted for his kid. The Lakers are Western Conference champs because Bryant upped his regular season averages of 28.3 points on .459 shooting from the floor to 31.9 points on .509 shooting in the playoffs. That’s right, folks: He won MVP and is playing even better than the regular season version of himself. TNT’s Charles Barkley quipped after Game 5 that we could all forget Kyra Sedgwick because Kobe Bryant really is The Closer, after witnessing Kobe score 26 of his 39 points in the second half, including 17 in the fourth. We’d be remised not to mention the defending champs. The Spurs proved worthy adversaries. Tim Duncan did everything he could with a triple-double (19 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists), Tony Parker had 23 and three other role players reached double digits (Finley – 13, Thomas – 11, Barry – 11). Some of the blame will be put on Manu Ginobili, who was 10-for-38 in the Spurs’ four losses and 9-for-15 in the Spurs one win. But Bryant went out and delivered the knockout punch and then went back to his corner to celebrate with his teammates who did damage of their own in the ring. Pau Gasol has 12 points, five assists, four blocks and a career-high 19 rebounds. Lamar Odom had 13 points and eight boards. Radmanovic, Fisher, Vujacic and Walton combined to hit six huge 3-pointers. And Jordan Farmar chipped in eight points off the bench, including a key personal 6-0 run to chip away at a Spurs lead that had ballooned to 17 at the time. The Lakers are four wins away from their fourth championship since 2000. If you think Kobe’s smile was big now, wait till you see him when they finish the job. Game 5 Final: Lakers 93, Spurs 91 – L.A. beats San Antonio, 4-1 Kobe opens up the fourth with a 3-pointer to lift L.A.’s lead up to four points. Usually he starts the fourth quarter on the bench, but as Doug Collins said, Phil Jackson is keeping him in there from the start so he can go for the “knockout punch” early. The Bench Mob goes on a key 5-0 run thanks to a corner three from Luke Walton and a high-off-the-glass reverse layup by Jordan Farmar. It’s only a four-point Laker lead, but with the home crowd behind them, this could start to snowball. Kobe wills a drive to the hoop, pushing the Lakers’ lead up to six. Marv Albert, owner of the “a spectacular move” call for Michael Jordan’s hand change in mid-air against the Lakers in the 1991 Finals, just serenaded Kobe’s move with an emphatic “gorgeous scoop” call. Kobe follows the gorgeous scoop with a knock-down jumper from straight away, and Vujacic follows Kobe’s jumper with a straight-away three of his own off of a broken play. The lead is seven and growing. San Antonio isn’t backing down. A jumper by Barry and a layup by Parker make it a two-point game with four minutes to play. Manu misses a wide open look from three to give the Spurs the chance to go up by one. Kobe Bryant follows with a floater that doubles the lead back to four. That could be a key sequence we look back at when the game is over. Tremendous. Kobe boosts his game-total to 33 points with a near-impossible fadeaway from the foul line with Tim Duncan draped all over him. The Lakers lead by five. Next possession, Kobe layup. Lakers by seven, and a series-high 35 for KB24. Paul, my college buddy who is a die-hard Celtics fan, just e-mailed me to ask if the Lakers are really this good. Yes, they are. Boston might beat Detroit, but stopping this L.A. team will take more than just the luck of the Irish and the ghost of Red. The Spurs playoffs start with a big made three by Duncan and ends the postseason with a mild missed three. L.A. is back in The Finals for the first time since 2004. What a year for Kobe. From the trading block to four wins from his fourth championship. As Rob Peterson just put it to me: “Kobe should have been in Glengarry Glen Ross -- Always Be Closing.” End of Third Quarter: Lakers 64, Spurs 63 The Spurs looked ready to pull away, going up 10 to start the third quarter, but a Derek Fisher steal and layup followed by a Bryant jumper got the margin back to six. Both teams are playing a little sloppy. There are missed shots galore, empty trips to the free throw line, turnovers … this is an elimination game, people! Pass some Red Bulls around or something. Almost at the exact moment I finished typing that last sentence, Kobe buried a jumper to make it a four-point game and the Spurs responded with a Tony Parker catch-and-shoot make from the wing. Now the action is starting to live up to the billing. Game 4 was a break through for L.A. because it led from wire to wire and never relinquished its lead. The Spurs couldn’t do the same tonight. Kobe Bryant hit a three to draw the Lakers to within one and on the next possession faked another triple out on the wing, bringing Bruce Bowen to his knees, and allowing Kobe to traipse into the lane for a little pull-up to give L.A. the 61-60 lead. That’s an 18-point turnaround from the beginning of the second to the end of the third. San Antonio responded after L.A. took the lead to go back up 63-61, but Mr. First Quarter ended the third quarter with a three from the corner to put the Lakers back up by one. L.A. is 12 minutes from the Finals, San Antonio has 12 minutes to keep its back-to-back bid alive. Halftime: Spurs 48, Lakers 42 Hair update: Ronny Turiaf has a ponytail. That is all. The Spurs didn’t practice on Wednesday and they cancelled their shootaround today. It looks like they wanted to save their makes for tonight. They have pushed the lead to 33-16. We had an interesting discussion in the locker room today about the NBA’s plan to discourage defenders from flopping by fining them next season. I wonder how far that will extend? What about offensive players? Vujacic just got hit in the face by Ginobili and “sold it” by covering his head with both hands in feigned pain. Isn’t that the same thing as flopping, to an extent? Michael-Howard-Fin … Nope. Back rim. False alarm. Jordan Farmar goes on a personal 6-0 run to get L.A. back in the game with Bryant, Gasol and Odom all on the bench.
