The chronicles of Laker history already had a 0.4 Seconds, and now there's a 0.6. That's how much time remained on the clock when Kobe Bryant - 25 feet from the basket, flying leftward off one leg, with Dwyane Wade is his face - launched the shot that brought hoops fans everywhere to their feet and to their laptops and Blackberries, so they could tell everyone what they just saw. It was a banked-in three that Kobe calls the luckiest shot he's ever hit, and it stole a win from the Miami Heat. Scroll down to see the video. The final score was 108 to 107.
The Lakers trailed by four with nine seconds left, but Derek Fisher dropped a three from the right elbow (location-wise, roughly the same spot from which he daggered Orlando in Game Four), and Dwyane Wade then missed one of two free throws to set up the final possession. By that point the Laker defense had more or less fallen apart - they allowed the Heat to score 1.29 points per possession in the fourth quarter and 1.23 PPP in the second half - Lamar Odom had been ejected, and the consensus in our game thread was that the Lakers kinda, sorta deserved to lose this one.
As Clint Eastwood observed in The Unforgiven, however, "Deserve's got nothing to do with it." This one goes into the books as a win, the Lakers' 15th against only three losses.
Ron Artest, would you care to have the final word tonight?
"That's Black Mamba. I knew he was gonna make it."
|
|
Poss. |
TO% |
FTA/ |
FT% |
EFG% |
TS% |
Off Reb% |
Def Reb% |
PPP |
|
L.A. |
92 |
9 |
0.30 |
82 |
46 |
53 |
38 |
60 |
1.17 |
|
Miami |
92 |
14 |
0.55 |
64 |
53 |
57 |
40 |
62 |
1.16 |