The Los Angeles Lakers were members of a fierce battle last night at Staples Center against the San Antonio Spurs. The first half was one of many struggles and the Lakers found themselves missing shots on many posessions.

Kobe Bryant was the leader of the team on this special night, and the details will follow shortly. In the first half, the Lakers played great in terms of their ability to run the offense and create opportunities for each other. The problem was that no ones shot would fall through the net.

Sasha Vujacic had a few good looks that would bounce in and out. Lamar Odom couldn’t get his lay ups to drop. Pau Gasol was shooting in and out. Kobe Bryant only took 3 shots in the entire quarter, making one with the foul. The only guy that really had it going was Vladimir Radmanovic who shot 5-5 in the first half. The half ended with the Lakers trailing the Spurs by 8.

The second half didn’t start off much better. The Lakers were outscored 7-0 to open the half and quickly fell behind by 15 points. As the quarter continued to tick away, so did the Lakers chances at winning. With 5:50 remaining in the 3rd the Spurs held a 65-45 lead over the Lakers and looked to be in complete control. What happened next no one could’ve predicted.

As Phil Jackson later stated, “Kobe Bryant returned from his vacation at the Bermuda Triangle and came to the sideline triangle.” He meant that Kobe Bryant really started executing the triangle offense to the max and went off on the Spurs leading the Lakers back into the game. With under three minutes gone by, and about 2:30 left in the 3rd, the Lakers found themselves only down by 6 points. Going into the 4th quarter, the Lakers trailed by 7 and had the momentum on their side.

At one point, the Staples Center crowd through out boos and showed their unsatisfaction of the Lakers performance. This didn’t last too long as the Lakers charged back and the crowd was ready to support their home team.

Kobe Bryant put the Lakers on his back and led the Lakers to a four point win in game one of the series. The San Antonio Spurs expressed several times how upset they truly were after surrendering so many easy baskets.

Throughout the game, I hosted a Live Blog. I was given the pleasure of being joined by some superior analysts such as Khandor of Khandor’s Sports Blog, Don of With-Malice, FLUX, and BlackMamba22. I had several other people provide input but these four really kept up a great conversation throughout the evening.

I may be putting together another Live Blog session for game two but won’t know for sure until later in the afternoon tomorrow.