LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers waited until the third quarter to get going. Once they did, the San Antonio Spurs couldn’t stop them.
And the defending NBA champions contributed to their own demise with a brutal, uncharacteristic fourth-period performance.
Bryant scored all but two of his 27 points after halftime, including a go-ahead, 10-foot jumper in the lane with 23.9 seconds remaining, and the Lakers rallied from a 20-point deficit to beat the Spurs 89-85 on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.
“Kobe, he was doing a trust-his-teammates thing in the first half,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “That’s why he had five assists, and he was checking it all out and seeing where his territory was going to be. In the second half, he went to work.”
Bryant, who finished with nine assists and five rebounds, shot 1-for-3 in the first half and 10-for-18 in the second.
“I know I can make that push and I knew once I did, I could get the game back under control, get it under 10 where we knew we could be in striking distance,” Bryant said. “In the first half, we were a little rusty, a little sluggish and a little tentative. It is big for a young team to come back from 20 against the defending champs.”
Defensive specialist Bruce Bowen held Bryant in check in the first half, but it didn’t last.
“Kobe put them on his back,” Bowen said. “We had an excellent opportunity, and we let it get away. I’m very disappointed.”
The Lakers are 7-0 in the postseason at the Staples Center, where they’ve won 13 straight games overall.
