Lakers vs. Suns: Game 1 128-107 – Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Phoenix Suns in last night’s opening game of the Western Conference Finals, heading the 1-0 series.
The NBA superstar scored 40 points, leading his team to a 128-107 victory against the Suns in Game One. The 31-year-old silenced worries about his health during his high-scoring performance for the sixth NBA Playoff game in a row. Bryant’s impressive scoring included a 21-point third quarter, and the shooting guard still had time to pull down five rebounds and dish out five assists, reports the UK Mirror.
Bryant was helped out by teammates Lamar Odom who had 19 rebounds and 19 points off the Lakers bench and Spanish power forward Pau Gasol had 21 points.
The defending champions dominated much of the game and Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson said, “This was surprising for us. Maybe we’ve peaked.”
Suns’ power forward Amare Stoudemire led his team with 23 points while point guard Steve Nash had 13 points and 13 assists.
“I think our room for error is small,” Nash said. They’re a lot bigger than we are, so we’ve got to try to cut down on some of those transition buckets, offensive rebounds, you know, defensive lapses, whatever it is.
“Our bench wasn’t great tonight. Our starters weren’t great tonight. We’ve got to all play better.”
The two teams meet again for Game Two of the best-of-seven series on Wednesday. The winner of the series will be crowned Western Conference champions and advance to the NBA Finals which begin on June 3.
