| Lakers: Western Conference Series Recap |
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| Written by Ryan.W | |
| Monday, 19 May 2008 | |
 In this season’s usual NBA playoffs which has been completely dominated by teams with home court advantage and road wins are seemingly near impossible to pull off, the Los Angeles Lakers have managed to advance to the Western conference for the first time since 2004 as a result of knocking out the a very tough Utah Jazz team in their house.
So far in the second round of the playoffs, every series has been destined to go the full 7 games. It has not easy for any team thus far, roads wins are not an easy task and new superstars are starting to emerge to give the veterans a run for their money.In the beginning of the Lakers/Jazz series, the Lakers were the obvious dominate team being the only team to escape the first round without a loss and this year’s MVP playing some of the best basketball of his career. The first two games in Los Angeles were a joke; the Lakers were playing like men amongst boys with Jazz finding absolutely no answer for Kobe Bryant or newest Laker Pau Gasol. The series looked to be another sweep for a Lakers team that seemed determined to get back to the NBA finals, that is, until they showed up in Utah for games 3 and 4 losing two straight in the arena that has been the hardest place to play this season for any visiting team with the Jazz only losing 4 games in their house all season long. In game 4 of the series, Kobe Bryant suffered a back injury that obvious hindered his play and threatened the Lakers Western conference finals hopes. The Lakers lost the game 4 in overtime in which Kobe struggled to get up and down the floor and was in noticeable pain the entire game. Between games 4 and 5 before the series went back to LA, every Lakers fan had nothing but Kobe’s bad back on their minds. Towards the end of game 4 Kobe couldn’t hide the pain anymore and seemed to age ten years before our eyes by jacking up air balls and getting no lift or elevation on his drives making it very easy for the defense to put the brakes on Kobe’s unstoppable offensive skills. Fortunately for the Lakers, game 5 was close, but the Lakers prevailed in the end with Kobe Bryant taking a back seat to his teammates letting Pau, Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher run the show. It was the first time, in a long time that Kobe Bryant didn’t attempt a single shot in the fourth quarter. Although Kobe still managed to be the Lakers leading scorer in game 5, the fact that he didn’t even attempt one shot in the fourth made Lakers fans still very concerned about the MVP’s health going back into Utah’s hostile environment for game 6. With a full days rest for Kobe after the win in LA he came out in game 6 with vengeance scoring a game high 34 points, 12 of which were in the fourth quarter. The Jazz still put up a valiant effort and could have easily come away with the victory in game 6, but the role players for the Lakers stepped up and got the job done. All five starters for the Lakers scored in double figures as did Sasha Vujacic off the bench who hit some big threes down the stretch. Although Utah’s Deron Williams had somewhat an off game, he was still able to put up some impressive numbers by scoring 21 points and dishing out 14 assists. The big disappointment for Utah in game 6 was the very poor play of Carlos Boozer as he only scored 12 points on 5 of 16 shooting and fouled out with 4 and half minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Now the Lakers have wrapped up the series they will await their next match up as they will be watching game 7 of the New Orleans Hornets/San Antonio Spurs series to see who they will be playing in the Western conference finals. The next round promises to be just as entertaining as this series if not more regardless of the Lakers opponent!         Set as favorite Bookmark Comments
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written by mikef85205 , May 19, 2008
it will be nice to see Lakers play Celtics in the Final
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