The Los Angeles Lakers have done what 15 teams hoped for in the western conference heading into the season. The Lakers have beat the San Antonio Spurs in 5 games to advance to the NBA Finals.

The Lakers last trip to the Finals was in 2004 when they lost in 5 games to the Detroit Pistons. With the Eastern Conference currently being fought out by the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons, Lakers fans are forced to sit and wait for a week until the NBA Finals begins.

The Celtics currently lead the Eastern Conference Finals 3-2 over the Pistons and are headed to the Palace for game 6. No matter which team comes out of the East, the Lakers will be playing on the road next Thursday on ABC, the home of the NBA Finals.

The Lakers started the game shooting 7-27 from the field while the Spurs came out firing at over 60%. Eventually, Kobe did his part, helped shut down the Spurs on the defensive end and brought the Lakers back. After trailing by 17 points in the first half, the Lakers closed it to 6 points at halftime.

Phil Jackson must have made some amazing half time comments and adjustments because the Lakers came out on a mission. The 3rd quarter went to the Lakers 22-15 and the 4th was the Lakers as well with a 36-29 advantage.

Kobe Bryant was the player of the game, by far, as he finished with 39 points on 16-30 shooting. Kobe also had 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals in the 43 minutes as he played the entire 4th quarter.

With the way this Lakers season started, surely everyone remembers Kobe’s trade demands in the offseason, no one could have expected the Lakers to be in this position. Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak pulled off the necessary moves in bringing in veteran point guard Derek Fisher and eventually pulling off a blockbuster trade in giving away Kwame Brown and Javaris Crittenton for all star Pau Gasol.

The rest of the season was history. The team has really bonded throughout the season as Kobe won his first ever MVP award and has finally been recognized for making his teammates better.

The Lakers appearance in the NBA Finals will be the 2nd great stop for Kobe Bryant as he looks for the ultimate year of perfection. Kobe Bryant has the potential to win the NBA MVP Award, NBA Championship, NBA Finals MVP Award, and the Gold Medal in the Summer Olympics.

Of course, let’s not get carried away by the achievements of the Black Mamba, for even he will admit that the credit for this year’s accomplishments are heavily due to the role players and basically everyone not named Kobe Bryant. For now, I’m overjoyed and so excited to see the Los Angeles Lakers back in the NBA Finals.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 10:12 pm and is filed under Los Angeles Lakers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.