The Lakers made a furious rally in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime, but wound up running out of gas against the Jazz, suffering a 123-115 series-tying loss.
“There was definitely a great chance after coming back,” said Pau Gasol (23 points, 10 rebounds) of the Lakers’ near comeback. “We had them where wanted them, and we weren’t able to execute. We didn’t get the shots that we needed to get in overtime. They got pretty good looks, and offensive boards. That is what gave them the victory.”
“It comes down to a couple defensive stops we have to make,” said Coach Jackson after the game. “I really had to jump our second unit a little bit again tonight, because they let us down in the fourth quarter. We had to come back and play out of a double digit deficit again. It put a lot of pressure on the starters to have to play at a pace in which they were pretty exhausted going into overtime.”
Kobe Bryant–who hurt his back in the opening minutes of the game–led the way for the Lakers in scoring again, dropping 33 points, but it took him 33 field goal attempts to get there. However, the MVP wasn’t about to blame his injury for his poor shooting night.
“No excuses for me,” said Bryant. “AK (Andrei Kirilenko) did a great job. Great defensive player. They just did a terrific job. They made big plays when they needed to, and you know, we cut it to within one. Derek makes a big shot. We gave ourselves opportunities. It just didn’t work out for us.”
For much of the fourth quarter, Kobe’s teammates provided the big boost to help their injured star, with Derek Fisher knocking in 15 timely points and Lamar Odom tallying 26, including a clutch three pointer with under a minute to go and the eventual game-tying layup with seconds remaining in regulation. But, the overtime period was a different story as Deron Williams (29 points, 14 assists) dominated the flow of the game.
“I was angry at his teammates for dropping the ball off in his lap when he was in a situation,” said Jackson of Kobe’s teammates inefficiencies in overtime. “He was making plays and we had things going at the end of the fourth quarter and I felt guys just bailed out on him.”
Kobe’s injury further handicapped the Lakers who were forced to play without backup forward/center Ronny Turiaf who was ejected in the first half after a hard foul on Ronnie Price.
When asked whether or not the call was the right one, Jackson said, “Absolutley not. I thought the kid (Ronnie Price) was out of control when he went in. Ronny did go up to block the shot, but I think he entirely played the ball. I haven’t seen a call like that, I was very surprised he (Turiaf) was put out of the ball game.”
The series moves to STAPLES Center for a pivotal Game 5 this Wednesday.
RSS Feed
