The game started off ugly. Very Ugly.
Ridiculously ugly.
But the Lakers matured in this series right in front of our eyes. The development of poise is a beautiful thing to watch. The evolution of leadership was something to behold.
In a first quarter dominated by the hot shooting Spurs, adjustments had to be made. The double teaming of Tim Duncan was leading to wide open jumpers for Michael Finley, Bruce Bowen, and the rest of Spurs' perimeter squatters. Our rotations had to get better, we needed to force cross court passes that would allow our defense to rotate and recover. And on the offensive side of the ball, we needed to stop settling for jumpers.
Somewhere in the second quarter, we got it. Thanks to Jordan Farmar's spark of three straight buckets, the offense started getting aggressive going to the hope and getting paint points. Along with getting out of our scoring quagmire, our defensive intensity picked up.
By mid third quarter, that feeling of being a team of destiny for this series started to settle in. Loose balls were rolling to the purple and gold. Amazingly, we managed to get the Spurs in the penalty with more than a minute left in the quarter. You just felt it.
Now we need four more victories. We get a week off. Rest and prepare.....
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