Lakers never trailed and outlasted Jazz 111-104.

Maybe Kobe’s injured back is a blessing in disguise for the Los Angeles Lakers. Playing injured forced Kobe to pick his spots and ended up being Mr. Efficient. He scored 26 points on 10 attempts (1 of 2 from long distance) and 13 freethrows (missing 4).

In the fourth quarter, he didn’t even shoot! Kobe later said that his back stiffened up in the 4th quarter. This time, however, his teammates were there to bail him out. An Odom here and a Gasol there made it work for this Los Angeles Lakers.

Lamar and Pau had 22 and 21 points respectively. Odom was especially aggressive, as I was hoping he would be. He also hit all 6 of his freethrows. In the previous games at Utah, the freethrows woes of the Lakers undid them.

Gasol grabbed 6 rebounds, all offensive. In the last 20 seconds it seemed he pushed Okur out of the way for an offensive rebound and a putback to extend the lead from 1 to 3. Of course, the officiating in this series has been inconsistent - we can’t say that only the Lakers benefited from faulty officiating.

Farmar and Radmanovic are back while Sasha has been a joke, going 1 of 11. I guess the bench tend to be balanced. They all can’t have good games at the same time.

All in all, the Lakers’ victory in game 5 was a combination of things: Kobe’s controlled game (because of his injury) and the increased aggressiveness of both Lamar and Pau. The bench’s performance just evened out the rest.

(Photos courtesy of L.A. Times) 

• Lakers 2, Jazz 2
• Lakers 1, Jazz 0
• Lakers 4, Jazz 2
• Lakers 2, Jazz 0
• Lakers 2, Jazz 1