1. Lamar Odom
Los Angeles Lakers forward Lam…
AP - May 28, 12:53 am EDT
LOS ANGELES – The night began like so many have for Lamar Odom(notes). His back ached. He had no rhythm, no shot, no … nothing. He drove hard to the rim and, suddenly, Chris Andersen(notes), the Denver Nuggets’ frenetic center, was there, swallowing up the ball before it could leave Odom’s hand.
The Los Angeles Lakers had come to expect this from Odom the past two weeks. They knew he was hurting. They also knew they couldn’t count on him, even if they wouldn’t admit it.
Odom knew this, too. So with the fourth quarter having now arrived, with the Lakers’ season having reached a crossroads, he took a pass from Kobe Bryant(notes) and looked up to see Birdman Andersen again standing between him and the basket. Odom bounced hard off the court, past Andersen, cradling the ball just long enough to let everyone know the ferocity that awaited.
An instant later, Odom was punching the ball through the rim, crashing down on Andersen. He lingered for a moment, staring past his teammates at all those delirious fans, and roared back, a moment that seemed as cathartic as it was exuberant.
2. Poor Denver Defense
Kobe Bryant(notes) offered himself up as bait and the Denver Nuggets bit. That freed up Lamar Odom(notes) and Pau Gasol(notes) on the inside, where the Lakers’ big men dominated.
3. Good Finish
So it all came down to the final 12 minutes.
Bryant, Odom and Gasol teamed for all but seven of the Lakers’ 27 points in the fourth. They opened on an 11-0 run for their first lead of the second half and it was capped by Shannon Brown’s(notes) jumper that beat the shot clock.
“He came in, gave us a huge spark and that’s what you need,” Bryant said of Brown. “It’s about who controls momentum.”
The Nuggets used a 13-6 run to close to 93-89. Linas Kleiza(notes) scored seven straight and Anthony had six in the spurt.
But then the Lakers regained control and finished off the victory. They improved to 20-0 in Game 5s at home when a series is tied 2-2.
“The games that we’ve lost, they had an advantage on the inside,” Anthony said. “The games that we’ve won, we had an advantage. We had to go to a smaller lineup tonight and they kept their big lineup on the court. That kind of hurt us a little bit. We’ve got to do a better job of keeping our big men out of foul trouble.”
4. Poor Officiating?
“I thought they got the benefit of the whistle,” Karl said. “Every player in my locker room is frustrated, from guards to big guys. Gasol goes after at least 20 jump shots, 20 shots to the rim and gets one foul; our big guys have 16. Nene has six fouls, three or four of them don’t exist.”
Karl said he didn’t want to get himself fined before agreeing with Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy, whose team leads Cleveland 3-1 in the Eastern Conference finals.
“In the post game we’re lobbying for the league to help us with the refereeing,” he said. “This is too good of a series. It’s too good of teams competing that we’re sitting here just confused by the whistle.”
5. Lakers Play Team....
Understandable how Kobe Bryant passes the ball.
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