From Deseret News archives:
Utah Jazz: Pau, right in the kisser
Late Gasol baskets end Jazz's comeback hopes in Game 5
All the talk afterward will be about how the Los Angeles Lakers are back atop, leading the best-of-seven NBA Western Conference semifinal playoff series 3-2 following their 111-104 victory late Wednesday night at Staples Center.
They did it with total team effort, as an ailing Bryant took care of his fair share scoring a team-high 26 points and dishing seven assists, but taking just 10 shots (with six makes) from the field and left the rest to the likes of Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom.
"It's tough," Jazz All-Star Carlos Boozer said of those two, "because sometimes you're helping so much on Kobe.
"We have to do a better job of keeping Kobe in front, so we don't have to help as much," he added. "But that's a tall task. He's a very good player, whether he has a bad back or not."
Thirteen of Bryant's points came from 17 free-throw attempts.
"Any time you start the ball game off with a great player knowing he'll have 17, 18 free throws," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said, "that's a very difficult thing for any team to play against.
Gasol delivered the dagger, first using a lay-in floater to make it 105-102 after Utah had cut the Laker lead to one with Mehmet Okur's follow of a Deron Williams miss, then dunking home the rebound of a Sasha Vujacic trey try from the left corner.
Gasol rose above Jazz big men Okur and Boozer as Vujacic's long-distance shot rimmed out, and with that Lakers were up by five with 20.5 seconds to go.
"I thought it was a push-off," Boozer said. "I've been called for that a couple times this series. I know it's down the stretch of a big game, winning time, but sometimes you want the referees to let players play.
"I think that was a situation tonight, they wanted us to just let the players win the game," he added. "And even though I thought he (Gasol) did push off Memo (Okur), put Memo under the hoop, easy dunk. But sometimes that's how physical it's gonna be."
Williams missed a trey try coming out of a timeout after Gasol's dunk, and Bryant polished things off, hitting 3-of-4 freebies in the final 10.7 seconds
Odom finished with a 22-point, 11-rebound double-double and Gasol added 21 points as the West's No. 1-seeded Lakers, heading into Friday night's Game 6 at EnergySolutions Arena, moved to within one victory of the Western Conference finals.
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