Now that C-Webb is not going to be here anymore, they're going back to expansionism. O'Neal insisted he had no inside information, just a gut feeling. Even Ron Harper, searching for a role after recovering from knee surgery, played four big minutes in the fourth quarter and hounded Peja Stojakovic into a key turnover. Every time it seems like we get down in a hole, he comes up and hits the big shot. Robert hit a big 3, and he hit a big runner.
Harper comes in the game and gets a big steal.
The Lakers will open the Western Conference finals on Saturday unless the San Antonio-Dallas series goes seven games. The Lakers are the first Western Conference team to sweep the first two rounds of the playoffs since the 1989 Lakers did it. That team also swept the conference finals only to be swept by the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals.