This victory feels like a series-clincher

The Lakers may have won this series by winning a game in which their best player and league MVP made one basket in three shots -- three -- in the first half.

"Just tried to read the flow of the game," said Kobe Bryant.

Well, um, Kobe, can you maybe read it a little closer next time? Maybe turn on a light and read the part where it says, "Dude, you have to score for the Lakers to win!"

"I can get it off any time, and in the second half, I did that," said Bryant, who indeed scored 14 points in the fourth quarter and gave the Lakers the lead with two free throws and a hanging jump shot.

The Lakers also may have won this series by winning a game in which their point guard Derek Fisher had zero assists and one basket, and their big man Pau Gasol had no offensive rebounds, and Sasha Vujacic was more clutch than any of them.

"There is no script to an NBA basketball game," said Fisher. "You just go out and play as hard as you can."

Lamar Odom put it another way.

"We scrapped," he said. "We just scrapped."

The Lakers scrapped at the Spurs until they missed 18 of 21 shots in the fourth quarter.

Fisher stopped being beaten by Tony Parker. Gasol stopped being dominated by Duncan. Bryant's arms and legs stopped everyone else.

"We just kind of stopped," acknowledged the Spurs' Manu Ginobili. "I don't know if it was our legs or if it was our heads."

The Lakers then scrapped at their own pride until they stopped doing silly things, committing just one turnover in the final quarter while clearing out for Bryant to be the usual hero.

"It was crazy," said Luke Walton. "Especially to do that against the Spurs, that's impressive."

In the final seconds of the game, there was a pile of Lakers on the floor, Odom grabbing Ginobili and Sasha Vujacic grabbing the ball for the clinching free throws.

"Heart," said Vujacic. "I think we have a big heart."

In the final moments of the night, there were piles of untouched food on a table in the Spurs' locker room, pizza and sandwiches abandoned by a team that had lost its stomach.

To a team that had taken a huge step toward finding its soul.

"Winning a championship is not easy, it doesn't come to those who just wait for it, and tonight was an example," said Fisher. "We went out and we won the game."

You ask me, they won a lot more than that.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.