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Lakers Defeat Spurs 98-90, Tie Series

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 May 2004, 06:00 CDT

LOS ANGELES - After spending most of the last two days in a Colorado courtroom, Kobe Bryant scored 15 of his 42 points in the fourth quarter Tuesday night as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs 98-90 to even the Western Conference semifinals 2-2.

Shaquille O'Neal added 28 points and 14 rebounds for the Lakers, who won by outscoring the Spurs 55-37 after halftime.

Game 5 in the best-of-seven series will be Thursday night in San Antonio, and Game 6 is Saturday night at Staples Center.

The Spurs extended their winning streak to 17 games by winning the first two of this series at home before the Lakers did the same thing - exactly what happened when the teams met in the conference semifinals last year.

The Spurs closed that series by winning the last two games.

Bryant pleaded not guilty to his sexual assault charge in Eagle, Colo., on Tuesday afternoon, and arrived in plenty of time for the game.

It was the fourth time he played a game following a day in court, including once in the Lakers' first-round series against Houston.

Bryant starred and his team won every time.

Bryant shot 15-of-27, made 10 of 13 foul shots and added six rebounds and five assists.

Manu Ginobili led the Spurs with 21 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Tim Duncan had 19 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, Tony Parker added 18 points and eight assists, and Hedo Turkoglu had 16 points and seven rebounds for the Spurs.

Ginobili set up Malik Rose for a dunk and made a layup, moving the Spurs within three points early in the fourth quarter. But O'Neal scored from underneath and Bryant made a 3-pointer and a twisting layup.

The Spurs weren't closer than six points after that.

The Lakers came out for the second half trailing by 10 points and mindful how difficult it would be to rally from a 3-1 deficit.

Early in the third period, to show how the intensity level had risen, Gary Payton yelled at teammate Devean George for not calling a timeout after George failed to inbound the ball in the allowed five seconds. George yelled back, telling Payton to move to an open spot.

As was the case in the first three games, the Lakers dominated the third quarter, outscoring the Spurs 31-16 for a 79-64 lead. O'Neal had 14 points and seven rebounds and Bryant added nine points in the period.

Earlier, Bryant scored nine points to spark a 17-8 run that cut San Antonio's lead to 41-40. The Spurs then outscored the Lakers 12-3 for a 53-43 halftime lead.

Duncan had eight points, eight rebounds and eight assists at that stage, making it appear he was on his way to a triple-double. But he had two rebounds and no assists after that.

After committing 57 turnovers in the first three games, Los Angeles had only two in the first half - both in the last two minutes. But the Spurs outrebounded the Lakers 25-15 and held them to one offensive rebound.

The Lakers finished with only eight turnovers to 13 for the Spurs.

Notes:@ San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, Parker and several other Spurs were late arriving at Staples Center, taking an hour to travel by bus from nearby Santa Monica. "It was a little crowded out there. I forget where we were," Popovich said with a smile. ... The Spurs are 5-0 in playoff games against the Lakers at SBC Center since the facility opened in November 2002, winning three times last spring and twice last week. ... Bryant doesn't have to return to Colorado on Wednesday for a third day of pretrial hearings as originally scheduled. "There'll be some more cohesiveness, I think, the way it's going to work out tomorrow," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. ... Jackson underwent an angioplasty a year ago Monday - the day before the Lakers played the Spurs in Game 4 of the conference semifinals. "I called my cardiologist yesterday, made my thanks to him," Jackson said. "We set up an appointment for the near future, to see where it's at."

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