Lakers quickly finding the killer instinct of a champion
BILL PLASCHKE
This time they don't fall behind or have to make a comeback as they take advantage of what appears to be a weary Spurs squad for a 101-71 victory.
Did you see how it started?
Immediately after the opening tip, Kobe Bryant jogged over and poked Bruce Bowen in the chest.
Hard.
Did you see what happened moments later?
Derek Fisher dribbled up to Tony Parker, then around him, then directly to the basket.
Hard.
Could you feel what was happening?
Looking across their little piece of the city Friday night, the Lakers saw a collection of weary, weakened San Antonio Spurs.
So they pounded them.
Bryant socked, Fisher shoved, Lamar Odom slapped, then smiling Jordan Farmar danced around the wreckage.
And, believe me, today the Spurs are a smoldering heap after the Lakers took a 101-71 victory and a two-games-to-none lead in the Western Conference finals.
The Spurs' Tim Duncan wiped his drawn face afterward and sighed.
"Everything just seemed to stack up against us," he said.
The passes-so-quick-you-can-hear-them Lakers teamwork.
The squeak-and-grind Lakers defense.
The breathless Lakers hustle.
Everything.
The Lakers ran off nine straight points to break a tie at the end of the first half, beginning with a Pau Gasol layup from a pass from the quadruple-teamed Bryant.
"I think they had some tired legs and . . . we had some open opportunities," Coach Phil Jackson said.
The Lakers then scored on their first nine possessions of the third quarter, flying where the tired Spurs stood, wowing as the uninterested Spurs just watched.
"Sometimes you have to take advantage of a team's weakness," Sasha Vujacic said.
The game was such a blowout, the giant video board gave Jack Nicholson his fourth-quarter curtain call late in that third quarter.
The Spurs were so finished, Coach Gregg Popovich benched both Manu Ginobili and Duncan for the entire fourth quarter.
For the game, Ginobili pushed off his sore ankle for only two baskets, Duncan scored only two points after halftime, and beloved old Robert Horry missed all five of his shots, including two three-point attempts.
Admit it Lakers fans, some of you were hoping he would make one just for old times' sake.
"The first game, we had rhythm," Horry said. ''Tonight, we had no rhythm."
Oh yeah, that first game, that Spurs' 20-point blown lead, remember that?
As expected, the Spurs will not be able to forget it, at least not this spring. That loss didn't only linger into this game, it lived in this game, from the tentative play of Parker to the hesitant play of San Antonio's defense.
