All the Lakers forced a semi-circle on the Staples Center court behind General Manager Mitch Kupchak as he was presented the Western Conference championship trophy by Lakers legend and Hall of Famer Jerry West.
West congratulated the Lakers on accomplishing one of their goals of reaching the NBA Finals for the first time since 2004. But he reminded them all, especially Kobe Bryant, that the goal is not complete.
The mission is to win the NBA championship and the Lakers took a step toward doing that by beating the defending champion Spurs, 100-92, Thursday night to win the best-of-seven series, 4-1.
Bryant put the Lakers in this position by scoring 17 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter, lifting his team out of a 17-point first-half hole.
Now Bryant and the Lakers will await the winner of the Boston Celtics-Detroit Pistons Eastern Conference series before starting the NBA Finals next Thursday on the road -- both teams had better regular-season records than the Lakers. The Celtics lead that series, 3-2, and can close it out with a victory tonight in Detroit.
The Lakers were a team in disarray when they reached the Finals in 2004, with Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal feuding.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson and O'Neal were shown the door by the Pistons.
"As I told the players tonight, there's nothing like losing the Finals for a negative feeling about a year after you've played as well as you've played and not to finish the job up," Jackson said. "As much as I appreciate the league trying to emphasize the Western Conference trophy, that doesn't mean too much when that big prize is still out there."
The offseason saga centered around Bryant makes reaching the Finals even more remarkable.
It was a year ago today Bryant started on his rampage about the front office being a mess.
He wanted to be traded. He wanted to stay a Laker for life. He wanted Andrew Bynum to be traded. He made disparaging remarks about Kupchak and owner Jerry Buss.
Now Bryant is going to the NBA Finals for the fifth time during his 12-year career.
"Once training camp came around, all I thought was about was basketball,"
Bryant said. "It was right back to business and doing what I do. Once the season started, I didn't think about a trade or anything like that."
"I just buckled down into what I needed to do to get this team to play our best basketball. That's what we did."
With Pau Gasol scoring 12 points, collecting a career playoff-high 19 rebounds, getting five assists, blocking four shots and playing solid defense on Tim Duncan, the Lakers are headed to the NBA Finals for the 29th time in 60 seasons, 23 while in Los Angeles. Duncan had a triple-double with 19 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists but shot just 7 of 19 from the floor.
The 18,997 fans made sure to let the Lakers know whom they would prefer to meet for the championship when they started chanting, "We want Boston. ...We want Boston."
The Lakers and Celtics have met for the title 10 times, with Los Angeles losing the first eight and winning the past two (1985, 1987).
The Lakers did it the hard way, pulling themselves up from a 33-16 second-quarter deficit. They clawed back by turning up the defensive effort and because of Bryant's will and the eight consecutive points for the Lakers after the Spurs pulled to within 83-81.
"Now it is time to go on,"
Bryant said, "and see if we can't finish it off."
