KOBE AND THE DRIVE FOR FIVE

By J.A. Adande
ESPN.com

PHOENIX -- The only thing Kobe Bryant hadn't done in what has been a masterful 2010 playoffs run is close out a game. And the only thing he hasn't accomplished in his 14 years in a Lakers uniform is beating the franchise's arch-rival, the Celtics, in the NBA Finals.

One down and another opportunity on deck after Bryant finished off the Phoenix Suns in Game 6 Saturday, hitting shots that ranged from incredible to ridiculous, in the Lakers' 111-103 victory. That sent the Lakers on to the Finals, where the Celtics and their institutional memories of Red Auerbach's cigar, Kevin McHale's clothesline and Paul Pierce's wheelchair await.

The Celtics also happen to be the last team to beat the Lakers in the playoffs, humiliating them with a 131-92 drubbing in the final game of the 2008 Finals.

Now that Bryant has removed the primary "but he didn't" from his career by winning a championship without Shaquille O'Neal, the range of mountains left to scale is shrinking. The Celtics gap is something for his place in Lakers lore, a way to further endear himself to the local fans still bitter about all of those defeats in the 1960s. If he wants to permanently knock Magic Johnson aside on the pedestal of beloved Lakers it's an important step to take.

Bryant is thinking on grander scale though. He said beating the Celtics would be "icing on the cake" and sounded much more obsessed with numbers than names of the victims.

"A championship's a championship," Bryant said. "It'll be my fifth ring if I'm fortunate to get it."

That would tie him with Magic and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who have the most Laker championships among the giant retired jerseys hanging in Staples Center.

Bryant is compiling other impressive numbers. In the course of averaging 29 points (on 48 percent shooting), six assists and five rebounds during these playoffs he has already surpassed Jerry West as the Lakers' all-time leading playoff scorer and moved into fourth place on the league list. Saturday marked the 75th time Bryant has scored 30 or more points in a playoff game, breaking a tie with West and giving him alone behind Michael Jordan (109) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (75) on the list of 30-point playoff performers.

But the easiest numbers to count, the ones everyone can rattle off without opening a web browser, are championship rings. Five would leave him one behind Michael Jordan. He knows there are those who won't speak of him on Jordanian terms until he gets to six. Jordan is his real rival, not the Celtics.

When it comes to teams Bryant has just as much animosity, if not more, for the Phoenix Suns, who eliminated him from the playoffs in 2006 and 2007, the second one so frustrating he took to the radio airwaves to demand a trade not long afterward. Questions about the pending Western Conference finals with the Suns after the Lakers swept the Utah Jazz in the second round this year brought more icy retorts from Bryant than what he had to say about the upcoming Celtics series, a topic he addressed with indifference.

"I didn't give a damn who we played [in the Finals]," Bryant said Saturday. "Didn't matter to me."

That doesn't mean he isn't fully cognizant of the added significance a Lakers-Celtics Finals holds. He could hear the "We want Boston" chants when the Lakers blew out the Suns in the first two games of the series, he was prepared for the onslaught of Celtics-related questions that came before the coroner even had a chance to examine the Suns. "There's a lot of things that people can write about and talk about. It's a sexy matchup."

From a basketball entertainment standpoint it won't be as appealing as the one that just ended between the Lakers and Suns. Even though the Suns fought their way back into the series by switching to a zone defense in Game 3, the Western Conference Finals were still an offensive showcase, with both teams scoring above 100 points in every game. The Lakers were on their way to another stratospheric total and were on the verge of ending the game early with a 91-74 lead after three quarters.

Then they went cold, producing only four points in the first 7 ½ minutes of the fourth quarter, while the Suns and their quiet fans were re-energized by a Sasha Vujacic whack to Goran Dragic's jaw that was ruled a flagrant-1 foul. Dragic cashed in the two free throws, then drove past Vujacic for a layup and the Suns kicked off one last scoring outburst that brought them to within three points inside 2 ½ minutes.

And then Bryant did what he's known for.

He had the chance to be The Man in Game 6 of the first round and Game 5 of this series. Both times he missed the shot, only to have teammates Pau Gasol and Ron Artest get the game-winning putback score. Artest was a candidate for the star of this game 25 points.

But it was Bryant who made the shots the Lakers had to have down the stretch, made the jumpers that had no business finding the net as well as the Suns guarded him. In the final 4 ½ minutes he spun away from Jared Dudley and pulled up in front of Channing Frye to hit a jumper, pivoted away from Grant Hill and hit a fallaway over Frye long the baseline, then hit a pair of back-to-back jumpers in Hill's face, shots so good Suns coach Alvin Gentry could only laugh.

Hill said he played even better defense than he did at the end of Game 5, when he forced Bryant to shoot an airball that Artest snatched and put in off the backboard to win it at the buzzer.

The final one was right next to the Suns bench with 35 seconds remaining.

"Great defense," Gentry told Hill.

"Not good enough," Bryant said to Gentry, adding a pat on the back for consolation.

That's the epitaph for the Suns, who exceeded expectations by reaching the conference finals and enjoyed the special camaraderie along the way. But ultimately they didn't show themselves to have the championship pedigree that Amare Stoudemire says will be the deciding factor in where he sings in free agency, and they couldn't end Steve Nash's dubious mark of appearing in the most playoff games without reaching the NBA Finals.

They played their way back into the series and back into the game, then Bryant ended it all for them.

"That [bleeping] guy," Gentry said, with as much admiration as possible.

Now the Lakers play the franchise their fans call that [bleeping] team with no hint with love at all. But to Bryant they're just another obstacle on his quest to be the Man ... no ifs, ands or bleeps.
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