The Basketball Diaries

Los Angeles Lakers 93 San Antonio Spurs 91 (Lakers lead 3-1)

And the defending champions are just about dead. The San Antonio Spurs nearly came back from a 7-point deficit in the final minute thanks to some sloppy play from the Lakers, but Brent Barry couldn't draw a foul on Derek Fisher in the final seconds, and the game ended with the Lakers ready to go back to LA and finish this thing off.

With the Spurs down two and 2.1 seconds on the clock, Barry pump faked from behind the arc to get Derek Fisher into the air, but instead of jumping up and into Fisher he stayed on the ground and let Fisher come down on him. The officials didn't call anything, and Barry never even got off a shot. Not exactly how you'd like your season to effectively end.

"That's not going to get called in the Western Conference finals," Barry said. "Maybe in the regular season. But that call shouldn't be called in the Western Conference finals."

Well, if you knew that, Brent, don't you think you probably should have gotten off a shot instead of trying to draw it?

Kobe led the Lakers with 28 points and 10 rebounds, and brought the Lakers to the cusp of going back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2004.

"It is a big step for us," said Bryant. "Tonight we came out and did a much, much better job to win in this building in this particular game. It's big for us."

Tim Duncan had 29 points and 17 rebounds for San Antonio, but the Spurs seemed to content to get into their half-court offense instead of running like they did in game three, and the change in strategy hurt.