The Basketball Diaries

Utah Jazz 123 Los Angeles Lakers 115 OT (Series tied 2-2)

The Jazz tried to give this one away, as they blew a 12-point lead in the final minutes and let the game get to overtime, but from there the defense locked down Kobe and the Lakers. LA only made two field goals in overtime, and the Jazz sent the series back to Los Angeles tied.

Deron Williams had 29 points and 14 assists, Carlos Boozer had 14 and 12 boards, Mehmet Okur had 18 and 11, and Andrei Kirilenko had 15 and 5 blocks. He also played very good defense on Kobe, because even though Kobe finished with 33, he only made 13 of his 33 shots.

"No excuses for me. [Kirilenko] did a great job," Bryant said. "They did a terrific job. They did big plays when they needed to."

San Antonio Spurs 100 New Orleans Hornets 80 (Series tied 2-2)

This game was not as close as the score would lead you to believe.

San Antonio took a 13-point lead until halftime, and nearly had it up to 30 before going to the bench in the fourth quarter. Tim Duncan had 22 points and 15 rebounds, and Tony Parker chipped in with 21 more points of his own.

Of course, the real difference in this game was that the Spurs finally stopped letting all the Hornets not named Chris Paul kill them. They figured out that Paul is going to get his no matter what, and the key to beating New Orleans is to stop everybody else.

"We've got to play Game 5 the same way we approached Game 3 and 4," San Antonio's Manu Ginobili said. "That is going to be huge, so we don't have to have any satisfaction with what we just accomplished. We are the same way we started."