ORLANDO, Fla. – Redemption day finally arrived for the Lakers.
If they shed tears on a hot and humid Sunday night, they were tears of joy instead of tears of anguish. They exorcised their demons with a victory dance after their 99-86 victory over the Orlando Magic in the decisive Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
The Lakers locked arms and bounced up and down after the final buzzer sounded on their 4-1 series victory over the Magic at Amway Arena. Thousands of Lakers fans, who had appeared as if from nowhere for Game 5, bellowed louder from the stands.
Three days shy of the one-year anniversary of a humiliating 39-point loss to the Boston Celtics in the decisive Game 6 last June, the Lakers gleefully celebrated the 15th championship in franchise history. Only the Celtics, with 17 titles, have won more.
“I can’t believe this moment is here,” Kobe Bryant said after he had 30 points, six rebounds, five assists and four blocks in a little more than 43 minutes in Game 5.
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PHOTO GALLERY  NBA Champions! |
For Bryant and the Lakers, the journey to their championship began with a renewed commitment to defense. The Celtics torched them in last year’s Finals. The Lakers also had to get tougher after Boston pushed them around.
Getting back to the Finals, and winning, was the team’s lone goal for 2008-09.
Bryant revealed several times during the playoffs that he was too preoccupied with chasing the title to sleep and said he occasionally swapped text messages with Pau Gasol at 3 a.m., which meant Gasol also was awake at that hour.
“Having gone through what we went through last year and having the goal in mind of trying to get back to this point, and to have the attitude of (trying) to become a better defensive team, a better rebounding team, and then to actually do it and to see it all happen, it feels like I’m dreaming right now,” Bryant said.
This was Phil Jackson’s 10th title as a coach, breaking his tie with the late Red Auerbach, and Bryant’s fourth. Bryant won his first three with Shaquille O’Neal in an almost unbeatable inside-outside combination.
This time, he did it without O’Neal.
“Well, I don’t have to hear that criticism, that idiotic criticism anymore,” a laughing Bryant said of winning a championship without O’Neal. “That’s the biggest thing. I don’t have to hear that stuff anymore.”
Bryant was selected the winner of the Bill Russell Award as the most valuable player of the Finals. He averaged 32.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 7.4 assists in five games and earned the honor for the first time in six trips to the championship round.
O’Neal was named the Finals MVP in each of the Lakers’ victories earlier this decade. He was traded to the Miami Heat after the Lakers’ loss to the Pistons, when management revamped the roster in dramatic fashion in the summer of 2004.
“Congratulations, Kobe, you deserve it,” O’Neal wrote on his Twitter feed immediately after the game. “You played great. Enjoy it, my man, enjoy it.”
The Lakers’ six Finals appearances this decade matched the number the Jackson-coached and Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls made in the 1990s. The difference was the Bulls went 6-for-6 during their remarkable run.
The Lakers’ victory also broke a tie with the San Antonio Spurs for the most titles in this decade. The Spurs won championships in 2003 over the Nets, in 2005 over the Pistons and in 2007 over the Cleveland Cavaliers, while Orlando lost for the second time in as many Finals. The Houston Rockets swept O’Neal and the Magic in 1995. O’Neal left the Magic the following season as a free agent and joined forces with Bryant.
Jackson arrived to coach them in 1999.
It was Trevor Ariza, rather than Bryant, who helped the Lakers break open Game 5. Ariza, a former member of the Magic, scored 11 of his 15 points in the second quarter. He ignited an 18-2 run that propelled the Lakers to a 56-46 lead by halftime.
The Lakers turned up their defensive pressure in the third quarter, held the Magic to only 15 points and then coasted home with a workmanlike effort in the fourth. Their lead ballooned to as many as 18 points in the final period.
“Well, it’s a dream, a dream come true,” said Gasol, who had 14 points, a team-leading 15 rebounds and a whole new collection of bruises from trying to contain Orlando’s Dwight Howard (11 points and 10 rebounds).
Lamar Odom had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Lakers, and Derek Fisher had 13 points while joining with Bryant to win his fourth title.
“We set a goal early in training camp and that was to win the NBA championship,” Odom said after winning his first title. “Every time we came in as a group, we left that group by saying, `1, 2, 3, ring.’ We set a goal and we attained it.”
elliott.teaford@dailybreeze.com
