A Closeout Tonight Or Game 7 On Monday
After a surprising comeback by the Suns to tie the game in the final three seconds, a surprising air ball from the games greatest closer, and a surprising heroic shot from a surprising hero, the Lakers are one victory away from returning to the NBA Finals for a third straight year. Kobe took the turnaround jumper well contested and all, but came up way short. That’s where Ron Artest (the man who the Lakers pretty much passed on resigning rising star Ariza for) stepped in to recover the air ball by Bryant to shoot it in at the buzzer giving the Lakers a 3-2 lead over the Phoenix Suns. ”I’m very happy for Ron” said Bryant who led the game with 30 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. ”But we’ll leave it here and go up there and try to win one.”
Artest who hit the game winning shot was probably the last person anyone would’ve thought to win the game. His stat line was rather forgettable with only four points, five rebounds and three steals but he’s also given the Lakers great position to have the opportunity to meet the Celtics once again in the NBA Finals.
Amar’e Stoudemire finished with 19 points shooting 7-12 from the field, only four rebounds but added three blocked shot. Channing Frye was rather active with 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Jason Richardson added a quiet 12 points, hitting probably the second biggest shot of the game with a long three pointer that he banked with 3.5 ticks left on the clock. Steve Nash was probably the main reason that Phoenix pulled from an 18 point deficit to tie the game. At one point down the stretch, Nash had nine of the teams 11 points. He finished with 29 points and 11 assists.
The Lakers big man Pau Gasol had a strong game finishing with 21 points, nine rebounds, five assists and shot 7-8 from the free throws, but the bigger part of the Lakers win on Thursday was because of Derek Fisher. D. Fish finished with 22 points, knocked down all six of his free throws, and shot 7-12 from the floor. It seemed like whenever Kobe couldn’t knock it down, Fisher was the one who could. The Lakers shot 87% from the free throw line to the Suns 69%, but Phoenix shot 47% to the Lakers 42%. Game six is in Phoenix for the last time in this series whether the Lakers finish it or not. One thing is for sure, Hollywood does not want to take the chance of winning this game off of a buzzer beater again.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Scruff on May 29, 2010 at 7:22 pm, and is filed under NBA. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
