NBA Playoffs: Lakers Advance to First Finals Since 2004

For the second straight time, the San Antonio Spurs will not repeat their Championship.

The passing of the baton appeared very evident Thursday night as the young Lakers squad upended the aging Spurs.

Young Lakers team, that is, plus a certain Kobe Bryant.

In this game, as in earlier games, the Lakers faced a huge deficit early on. In Game Five, the margin was 17 points early in the game.

Bryant scored 17 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter to bring his team back for an eight-point victory over the Spurs.

The Lakers now have a playoff record of 12-3, remaining undefeated at the Staples Center. Los Angeles hasn't lost at home for two whole months.

The Spurs jumped out to an early 28-15 point lead in the first quarter and Bryant was quoted as saying that he didn't expect San Antonio to come out as fast as they did.

Maybe they came out too fast.

The Spurs hung on to their lead until the end of the second quarter. That's when Los Angeles turned the game around and cut the Spurs lead down to six.

The Lakers never looked back.

Los Angeles had a one-point lead going into the fourth quarter. The Spurs made a valiant effort at a comeback, scoring 29 points, but it wasn't enough to overcome the Kobe show.

With 5:40 left in regulation, Lamar Odom scored two points to put the Lakers up by seven. After two quick buckets by the Spurs, however, that lead was shot to two with just minutes to play.

Bryant came right back after a missed trey from Tony Parker to make the lead four with 3:33 left in regulation.

After two more baskets from Bryant and a free throw from Tim Duncan, the lead was seven with 1:47 to play. The Spurs never got closer than five for the rest of the night.

Bryant had a game-high total of 39 points in addition to three rebounds. Pau Gasol had 12 points and a career playoff-high 19 rebounds. Lamar Odom gave the Lakers 13 points and eight rebounds.

Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar combined for a total of 17 points.

Tony Parker led the scoring for the Spurs. He put up 23 points while shooting 11 for 22 from the field. Duncan added 19 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists to complete the triple-double.

Three other Spurs scored in double figures as well. Michael Finley scored 12, Brent Berry 11, and Kurt Thomas also racked up 11 points in the Thursday night loss.

Bryant realizes his teams' accomplishment, but is trying to keep things in perspective.

"I think it is a tremendous accomplishment. I think the West is extremely tough. We're all extremely excited and proud about it. Now, it's time to go on and see if we can't finish it off," Bryant said.

The San Antonio Spurs, led by a rotation of mostly 30-something players (except 26 year-old Parker), thought they had what it took this year.

"Just got to gear it up again to go to next year. Love what we had this year. We just weren't good enough through stretches," Duncan said.

An interesting side-note is the fact that Bryant only attempted 11 free throws during the entire series with the Spurs. He went to the line a total of 96 times against the Utah Jazz.

Los Angeles will now have a week off as they wait for the Eastern Conference Finals to wrap up. They will either travel to Boston or Detroit. Coach Jackson knows he has a long, uphill battle ahead of him and his team.

"We look at both those opponents [Boston and Detroit] with a great deal of respect and know that we have a great, great hill to climb to be able to finish in the finals and win," he said.

Game One of the NBA Finals will be held either at Boston or Detroit on Thursday, June 5.