Enjoy this Slide Show of the Lakers Winning # 15

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh6oe8ZOwuc

Photography by Wally Skalij and Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times, Produced by Kathy M.Y. Pyon

Coach Phil Jackson has yet to confirm whether he’ll return after winning his record 10th NBA title, moving him past Boston’s Red Auerbach. But some of his players believe he’ll be back.  “I didn’t get the feeling leaving that he wasn’t going to be my coach next season,” Fisher said. “I could be wrong, but I just think that we have a collection of players with the veteran leadership of Kobe and myself, he can feel good about the ability to coach and manage this team. All the work is not just on him to try to continue to get this team to grow.”

Gasol said he got the feeling Jackson wants to continue coaching.  “I really hope he can coach us again, not just for one year, for as long as he wants or can,” he said.  Luke Walton said the way Jackson spoke led him to believe there won’t be a coaching change next season. “He was saying what he expects for next year,” Walton said. “Everything he said was with the intention he will be back, but obviously I can’t read him, not many people can.”

Side by side, Ariza and Odom celebrated. Still in uniform, their ready-made championship shirts wet with champagne, an empty bottle within arm’s reach. Trevor Ariza and Lamar Odom, new to this championship thing, huddled together on a bench inside the Los Angeles Lakers’ locker room. They looked a little unsure of themselves, of the whole delirious scene, and someone needed to tell them that, yeah, this was real. This was their moment, too. “If it was a movie, I couldn’t have ended it any better,” Ariza said. He laughed. He was thinking the same thing everyone was thinking.  “Hopefully, there will be a sequel.”  

Can the Lakers repeat? 3-peat? They’re talented enough, young enough, to make sure this season isn’t a one-and-done celebration, provided enough of them stay together. Ariza and Odom become free agents in a couple weeks, and for Lakers owner Jerry Buss, that means one thing: It’s time to pay.  The media will talk about the luxury tax, but let’s not get caught up in the NBA propaganda.  The Los Angeles Lakers are the most profitable team in professional sports and Jerry Buss has never has a problem paying the bill when he believes in his team.  Clearly Buss and Kupchack have faith in the this Lakers squad and I will be shocked if both Ariza and Odom are not resigned this summer.  Niether player is expendable and each player made significant contributions throughout the playoffs enroute to the 2009 NBA championship.

Watch Video with Lamar Odom Discussing his Lakers’ Depth This Season 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwhX2pxXqbo

Ariza’s performance might have come as a surprise had he not done the same three nights earlier when he sparked the Lakers’ Game 4 comeback with a 13-point third quarter. Not a spot-up shooter? He made 40 3-pointers in 84 attempts during these playoffs. In 229 career games before this season, he’d made nine. Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak followed Ariza during his lone season at UCLA and targeted him as a possible roster addition once he arrived in the NBA. He liked Ariza’s length and athleticism. But envisioning him as a starter in the Finals, a valued contributor on both ends of the floor?  “I couldn’t tell you with a straight face I knew that,” Kupchak said. Ariza might not have envisioned it himself. For much of the Finals, he downplayed the significance of facing the team that traded him. But as the Lakers celebrated late Sunday, he finally admitted the obvious: Winning on the Magic’s floor meant something.  “This,” he said, “was special.”

Odom said the same. He came to the Lakers five years ago from the Miami Heat as part of the package for Shaquille O’Neal. Two seasons later, Odom watched as the Heat won the championship without him. After the Lakers bowed out of last season’s Finals with a 39-point loss to the Boston Celtics, Odom shouldered much of the blame for the embarrassing collapse.  On Sunday, he played the role of hero. The Magic closed within five midway through the third quarter, and Odom answered with consecutive 3-pointers.  “I’ve always seen this coming, my day,” he said. “…It’s finally here, and it’s … overwhelming.”  Minutes earlier, Kupchak had stood in a quiet corner of the locker room with his son, Max, next to him. The champagne had already emptied, but Kupchak looked dry. Five years earlier, the Lakers dismantled their dynasty by trading Shaq. No one faced more heat during those three subsequent lost seasons than Kupchak, and no one deserves more credit for shaping the Lakers into a contender again.  This championship, Kupchak said, was special because it proved “the rebuilding stage had a beginning – and had an end. 

Truth be told, the Lakers would prefer not to change many of their ingredients. Ariza turns 24 at the end of the month and is due a nice raise from the $3 million he earned this season. To keep the midlevel suitors away from Ariza, the Lakers may need to pay him twice that in a contract extending four or five seasons. Odom is more complicated. He made $14 million, and he’ll need to take a pay cut to stay. Odom has said several times that he wants to retire as a rock-star on the Lakers and he’s willing to accept less. The question: How much less? Only a few opposing teams own significant salary-cap room, so leveraging the Lakers won’t be easy.

Lakers Bury Magic -- Watch Game 5 Highlights as Lakers Win 2009 NBA Finals

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpfGZCtstb8

For Lakers coach Phil Jackson, this was title No. 10, moving him past legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach for the most by a coach in league history.  “I’ll smoke a cigar in honor of Red,” Jackson said. “He was a great guy.”  For Pau Gasol. For Derek Fisher.   For Lamar Odom. For Trevor Ariza and for Andrew Bynum and the rest of the Lakers, this was a title to savor. “It’s a dream come true,” Gasol said. “The completion of a goal.”  Odom scored 17 points, Ariza had 15, Gasol 14 and 15 rebounds, and Fisher, whose two big 3s in Game 4 saved L.A., had 13 points. 

It took longer than Kobe expected, but he has stepped from Shaquille O’Neal’s enormous shadow—at last.  Bryant averaged 32.4 points, 7.4 assists, 5.6 rebounds and more than a dozen cold-blooded glares per game. He wasn’t out to make friends in these finals, he was out for redemption. Throughout the playoffs, he didn’t smile. He just snarled and bared his teeth.  “I was just completely locked in,” he said. “I was grumpy for a while and now I’m just ecstatic, like a kid in a candy store.”  O’Neal, who won three titles with Bryant before the pair had a major falling out, was glad to see his former teammate win another. “Congratulations Kobe, you deserve it,” O’Neal said on his Twitter page. “You played great. Enjoy it my man enjoy it.”  Bryant and Jackson, whose relationship strained and briefly snapped under the weight of success, are again at the top of their games.  Following the game, the pair shared a long embrace. Jackson, who once called Bryant “a selfish player” now sees the 30-year-old in a far different light. “He’s learned how to become a leader in a way in which people want to follow him,” Jackson said. “That’s really important for him to have learned that because he knew that he had to give to get back in return, and so he’s become a giver rather than just a guy that’s a demanding leader. That’s been great for him and great to watch.”

After the final horn, Bryant and his teammates bounced around the floor of Amway Arena. Moments later, Bryant swept his two daughters, both wearing gold Lakers dresses, into his arms.  It was just as he dreamed.  “It finally felt like a big old monkey was off my back,” he said. “It felt so good to be able to have this moment. For this moment to be here and to reflect back on the season and everything that you’ve been through, it’s top of the list, man.”  Bryant had come up short twice in the finals before, in 2004 with O’Neal against Detroit, and again last season against the Celtics in the renewal of the league’s best rivalry. The Lakers were beaten in six games, losing the finale in Boston by 39 points, a humiliating beat-down that Bryant and his teammates had trouble shaking. They went to training camp with one goal in mind. This was going to be their season, and except for a few minor missteps, it was. In the locker room afterward, Bryant made sure Jackson got a champagne shower. “He took his glasses off, threw his head back and soaked it all in because this is a special time,” Bryant said. “For us to be the team that got him that historic 10th championship is special for us.”

The Magic went just 8 of 27 from long range. When the game ended, Howard didn’t move. As his teammates headed to the locker room, Howard stayed on Orlando’s bench and watched as the Lakers celebrated on the Magic’s floor. Jameer Nelson Orlando’s point guard who came back for the finals after missing four months with a shoulder injury, finally joined him The two sat stunned. “What I just told Jameer is look at it, just see how they’re celebrating,” Howard said. “It should motivate us to want to get in the gym, want to get better.”  Orlando was trying to become the first team to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the finals. They had rallied to knock off Philadelphia and Boston, and then upset LeBron James and Cleveland in the conference finals. The Magic always felt they had a shot at history. Bryant, though, wouldn’t be denied his place. “They had an answer,” Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said, “for everything.”  Look for the LA Lakers to come back next year and repeat!

The Lakers can wrap up their first title since 2002 on Sunday in Game 5. If necessary, Games 6 and 7 would be back in Los Angeles at Staples Center.The only way the Lakers, who overcame a 12-point halftime deficit in Game 4 and improved to 7-0 after a playoff loss, can be denied a crown is if they lose three straight.  That hasn’t happened all season.  The Magic, commandos of the comeback in the postseason, need a rally for the ages. No team has ever come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the finals.  “There’s no reason for us to hold our heads down,” Orlando center Dwight Howard said. “We will believe until there’s no more games to be played.”

Watch Lakers vs Magic Game 4 Highlights -- 2009 NBA Finals -- Lakers win 99-91 in OT -- Jalen Rose on ESPN

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dEQ_xYDBOg

Howard was magnificent everywhere but at the free-throw line. He scored 16 points with 21 rebounds and a finals-record nine blocks. But he made just 6 of 14 foul shots, and it was his two crucial misses with 11.1 seconds to go in regulation that doomed the Magic. Orlando missed 15 free throws. “I just missed them,” Howard said. “I’ve been working on my free throws. They just weren’t falling tonight.” After Howard’s late misses, Fisher pulled up and without hesitating dropped a 3-pointer over Orlando’s Jameer Nelson with 4.6 seconds left to tie it at 87— and silenced the home crowd.“I just sensed that was the dagger,” Fisher said. “That was the one that would put us in a position to close out the game—even though the game wasn’t over.”  Before the first of his two big 3s, Fisher had missed his first five. “He’s been there before,” said Kobe Bryant, who had 32 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. “He has been there and done that. That’s Derek. He just has supreme confidence and I think those shots at the end of the game are actually easier for him than the other ones.”

At the end of regulation, Orlando had one final try. The Magic inbounded the ball to Mickael Pietrus, but his long and contested jumper was off.  Bryant scored two quick baskets in the overtime, and Howard tied it when he split two free throws with 1:27 remaining.  On L.A.’s next trip, Trevor Ariza grabbed his own miss to get another 24 seconds and Fisher lined up and drilled his 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 94-91.  As he retreated down court and Orlando called a timeout, the Lakers bench stormed onto the court and surrounded the popular Fisher, who felt obliged to come through.“  I have a responsibility to my team that if I’m going to be on the floor, then I have to make a difference,” he said. “None of us can continue to expect that Kobe is going to save us.”

In NBA finals history, only two players have made more 3s than Fisher’s 40: “It’s character,” said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, a victory away from a record 10th NBA championship ring. “We’ve always said the character has got to be in players if they are going to be great players. You just can’t draft it.”  Ariza and Pau Gasol each had 16 for Los Angeles. Ariza, traded by Orlando to L.A. in 2007, had 13 of the Lakers’ 30 points in the third quarter.  With his team up by three at the end of regulation, Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy felt it was too early to foul the Lakers. With his team missing free throws, he didn’t want to get into a foul-shooting contest.  Later, he regretted the decision. “That one will haunt me forever,” he said. The Lakers spent the first half in foul trouble, and left the floor at halftime down 49-37. They came back a different team. “On a championship run, you’re going to have moments where you make big plays,” Bryant said. “And tonight was one of them.”

After losing the NBA finals last year, anything short of a 15th title will do for the Lakers.  And with the sensational Bryant out front, they may be on their way.  The last time the Lakers were seen in the Finals, they were heading toward their locker room in Boston last June and summer break after being drubbed by 39 points in a series-ending Game 6 by the Celtics. The renewed rivalry between the league’s superpowers never panned out

Bryant and his teammates have used that humiliation to motivate them all season and throughout these playoffs. They are on a mission. The Magic, who went 2-0 against the Lakers in the regular season, appeared a touch overwhelmed in their first Finals appearance since 1995.  Orlando center Dwight Howard was engulfed by two and three Lakers every time he touched the ball and scored 12 points — 10 on free throws — on just 1-of-6 shooting.  And the Magic’s outside shooters, so deadly while eliminating MVP LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference finals, and were off the mark.  The Magic went just 8-of-23 on 3s and shot only 30 percent overall.”We’ve never had a shooting night this bad,” Howard said. “We’ve just got to come out and play a lot harder than we did tonight.”Orlando is facing some daunting odds, too.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson, seeking a record 10th title, is 43-0 in series in which his team wins Game 1.Bryant, who added eight rebounds and eight assists, knows the Magic are still dangerous.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RByS6TAjqsw

“We saved our best game for last here, or maybe we caught our opponent a little bit off stride,” said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who gets a shot at his record 10th title.  Bryant had 35 points and 10 assists and got plenty of scoring help from Trevor Ariza, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom as the Lakers shot 57.3 percent from the field to avoid having to play a Game 7 back at the Staples Center.

They will finally get some much-needed rest after playing every other day for a grueling two weeks.  These Los Angeles Lakers, who are seeking their 15th title, are a more grizzled group — but also more bruised and battered — than the one that fell to Boston in the finals last year.  “Now we’re in a place where we didn’t get the job accomplished last year,” Bryant said. “Hopefully we will this time.”

Instead of cruising through the West this time, the Lakers survived an arduous seven-game semifinal series against Houston and another test against Denver. “It’s been a physical march all the way back to the finals, every series has been tough,” Bryant said.  The Magic lead 3-2 and can clinch the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday night at home in Game 6 and prevent that Kobe-LeBron matchup that has basketball fans and corporate sponsors atwitter.

The finals begin Thursday, at Los Angeles if Orlando wins, and at Cleveland if the Cavaliers prevail.

Anthony led the Nuggets with 25 points and J.R. Smith added 24, but Denver trailed for all but a few seconds and never mounted a serious charge after halftime, although they kept hitting 3-pointers, finishing 8-of-19 from beyond the arc.This was the Nuggets’ eighth consecutive loss in a playoff elimination game.

Odom and Gasol both scored 20 points and Ariza had 17, and the Lakers made all 24 of their free throws and were 9-of-16 on 3s.  “We are really tough to beat because we’re using all our weapons, not focusing on Kobe or myself,” said Gasol, who had 12 rebounds and six assists. “We have a really good team and need to use everybody. That is how we are going to win it. The Lakers might very well have been swept by the energetic Nuggets if veterans Anthony Carter and Kenyon Martin hadn’t botched inbounds passes in the final seconds of Games 1 and 3, respectively.

Bryant didn’t wait for the fourth quarter Friday night to give the Nuggets, who had posted eight postseason blowouts, a taste of their own medicine.  He scored 11 points in a decisive 21-7 run that gave the Lakers a 53-40 halftime lead, took the buzz out of the Pepsi Center and the air out of the Nuggets.”We had the effort and the execution to match,” Bryant said. “It took us a while to really get a feel for the team, just how to take advantage of the defense. We saw something how they were playing us and we executed extremely well.”  Bryant started his run with two free throws, then hit a jumper over Smith. After Ariza’s 3-pointer, Bryant made baskets over Anthony from the left and right corners on the next two possessions, then capped the run with a dagger — a 3-pointer with 4.1 seconds left following Gasol’s offensive rebound.

The Nuggets trimmed their deficit to 79-67 but the Lakers replied with a 9-0 run to restore their stranglehold. Bryant scored seven straight points, including a 3-pointer that made it 101-82.  “He had a great five minutes at the end of the game that no one in basketball could have covered him,” Nuggets coach George Karl lamented.  Karl likes the Lakers in the finals no matter if it’s Kobe-LeBron or Kobe-Superman.

“I saw little cracks in the Lakers and somehow we’ve cemented those cracks back up, and I think they’re the best team right now in the NBA,” he said. The Nuggets thought they had the Lakers right where they wanted them after stealing Game 2 in Los Angeles, but they quickly gave the homecourt edge back on Martin’s botched inbounds in Game 3 that cost them their first loss at the Pepsi Center since March 9.

After winning 16 straight games at home, the Nuggets lost two of three there in their first trip to the conference finals in 24 years.

Chauncey Billups, whose acquisition from Detroit for Allen Iverson in early November, transformed the Nuggets from afterthoughts to contenders, said, “I’ll never forget this year. But this is not as far as I want to go.”

Jackson thinks these Nuggets, with their top five scorers returning next season, have arrived as an elite team.”They thrashed a lot of opponents in the Western Conference playoffs,” Jackson said. “And their physicality and athleticism and their scoring ability is remarkable.”

Bryant concurred, suggesting the Nuggets helped the Lakers play to their potential. “Denver is a great team, very skilled at all positions,” he said. “Strong inside. Strong on the perimeter. Huge problem for us. And because of that, we had to elevate our level as a unit. And if we didn’t do that, we’d be going home early.”

With Bryant luring double coverage then passing to his teammates, the Lakers owned the fourth quarter in a 103-94 victory Wednesday night that gave them a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference finals.

Watch Lakers Highlights Game 5>

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYCSkIFdLjc

Bryant scored 22 points — on just 13 shots — Odom had 19 points and 14 rebounds despite an aching lower back and Gasol added 14 points and 10 rebounds.  “It was a big gamble for me coming in, but I wanted to change my approach this game and be more of a decoy,” Bryant said after adding eight assists, several out of double-teams in the fourth quarter. “The past couple games they really were loading to my side and I figured I could be a decoy and try to give chances to my teammates.”

Game 6 is Friday in Denver, where the Lakers lost Game 4 by 19 points  “That place is going to be rocking and rolling,” Bryant said. “We have to stay focused and poised and try to cut them up. Be cold-blooded, go out there and execute.”  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 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.”

“This Lakers group is really connected,” Jackson said. “They’re driven and they’re motivated to get to where we were last year to give us a chance to win.”

Denver twice led by seven points in the third quarter only to see the Lakers tie it at 76 on a 3-pointer by Bryant to end the period.  In a first half featuring 13 ties, the teams ended up even after both the first and second quarters.

Gasol’s two free throws tied the game for the last time at 99 before Bryant went to the line, offsetting a 3-pointer by Chauncey Billups and a free throw by J.R. Smith.  Carmelo Anthony scored 39 points, Billups added 18 and Kenyon Martin had 15 for the Nuggets, who hadn’t played since taking care of Dallas in five games last Wednesday.

Kobe Bryant for a One-Handed Dunk!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqoBcJ6egZg

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DEN (8-3)  31 23 22 27 103

LAL  (9-4)  23 32 19 31 105

7 Keys to Lakers Victories

1.    Play Defense – Kobe and Ariza need to make big stops

Gasol, Odom and Bynum need to be defense minded and Odom and Bynum both need to stay out of foul trouble.

2.    Lakers need to let the 3’s come to them and focus more on passing the ball and executing the triangle

3.    Kobe needs to take the ball to the hole and not fall in love of his jump-shot.  Lakers need Kobe to go to the free-throw line 10-15 times a game

4.    Phil needs to Play Bynum at least 25 minutes a game.  Let him foul out.  He helps nobody sitting on the bench

5.    Lamar needs to be aggressive offensively and defensively.

6.    Phil needs to call a time-out from time to time

7.    Lakers can’t coast when they go up by 15….

Article written by Bryan Dornan

Trying to reach the NBA finals for the second straight year, the Lakers host the opener of the conference finals against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night. The Lakers have been so up and down in this series that coach Phil Jackson said before Game 5 that they had a little bit of Jekyll and Hyde in them. That was the night the Lakers raced to a 40-point win at home, only to follow it up two nights later with a 15-point loss, the second straight game they were blind-sided in Houston.

There are any number of theories as to why the Lakers have had a split personality. Asked what the Lakers learned from this series, Kobe Bryant cracked: “That we’re bipolar.” Added Lamar Odom: “To make it interesting. It’s Hollywood, you know.”  It turns out that home-court advantage and a smothering defense were all it took to jump-start the Lakers, who made sure they didn’t choke this one away against the No. 5 seed.

The Lakers dominated the paint on both ends, forcing the Rockets into turnovers and bad shots. They owned the backboards, taking a 55-33 advantage, and blocked 10 shots. They had an 8-0 lead a few minutes in and widened it to 25 points on Gasol’s jump hook shortly before halftime.  After the game, Bryant patted Gasol on the shoulder and offered words of congratulations.  “I was just proud of the way he played,” Bryant said. “He answered the challenge and he played like one of the best players in the world. I was just excited for him.”  Gasol kept Rockets point guard Aaron Brooks from penetrating, as he did often in this series. The Spaniard had 12 defensive rebounds and swatted away three shots. “We all know what he can do offensively. I just felt like defensively, he had a superb game,” Bryant said.

                   1   2   3  4   T

HOU (7-6)   12 19 19 20 70

LAL  (8-4)   22 29 18 20 89