Lakers seem like showtime

So maybe it was more of a stagger than a bold leap into the next round, the Lakers squandering all but three points of a convincing 19-point lead before holding on to close out the Utah Jazz in Game 6. But here they are.
Advancing, growing, learning, moving on to the Western Conference finals.
The Lakers showed they have just enough experience and firepower, beating the Utah Jazz 108-105 at EnergySolutions Arena Friday night, and demonstrated why they have the right mix to beat either the New Orleans Hornets or the San Antonio Spurs in the next round.

They just notched an increasingly rare road victory in these playoffs. At the start they showed an understanding of the initial effort it takes to prevail in hostile environments. At the end they learned how important it is to sustain that energy.
Jerry Sloan kept painting the Lakers as the more experienced team, even though the Jazz were the ones who went to the conference finals last year and had almost everyone back. The only Lakers who had reached the conference finals before were Bryant, Fisher and Luke Walton. Fisher was the swing voter in this election, the man whose experience helped the Jazz at critical junctures last year and who gave the Lakers a steady veteran influence and an upgrade over Smush Parker at point guard when he re-joined them this season.
Add in the 33 rings Phil Jackson and the staff on his bench have as coaches and players and you can see how the Lakers get their winning attitude.
"That's all our coaching staff, Kobe [Bryant] and Derek [Fisher], who've been in big games before," Lamar Odom said. "It's all a reflection of them. The poise and the killer instinct they gave us is remarkable."
And now it's transferring to the rest of them. The Lakers featured Pau Gasol in their offense, and he had 17 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots. Odom is now completely comfortable playing away from the ball and at the power forward position. Sasha Vujacic loves being the bad guy off the bench.
What it means for everyone else is that Bryant, the most dangerous player in the playoffs is back haunting the rest of the league in May. It took some additions to the cast, but now it rivals the "Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise, with Freddy Krueger joined by Jason Voorhees.
Of course, Bryant has created his own villainous character, and he brought it out after the Jazz pulled within seven points with just over five minutes remaining.
"I went to the Black Mamba," said Bryant, who finished with 34 points.
First he got the ball on the right wing, as Matt Harpring muscled him up. Bryant created enough space to launch a 3-pointer and drained it. Harpring turned and groaned as if he'd been stabbed.
"Man, oh man that was a big shot," Harpring said. "I've got to give him credit for that one. That's one of those shots that if he misses, we're golden. But he made it and that's why he's a big-time player."
The next time down, Bryant went up for an off-balance jumper, Harpring got called for a foul and Bryant somehow banked home the shot, then made the free throw for another three-point play. The Jazz did their own, refuse-to-die-horror-movie imitiation, making five 3-pointers in the final 2 ½ minutes to get close, and when Fisher missed a free throw with 9.9 seconds remaining it gave them one last hope. But Mehmet Okur missed an open, deep look and Deron Williams rushed an attempt after he got the rebound.
So the Lakers breathed a sigh of relief, then broke into a series of celebratory hugs.
"The fourth quarter we played was definitely disappointing, but not even close to overshadowing what we've accomplished here on the road," Fisher said. "There are always things to learn in every win and loss and we'll be able to learn from tonight, but I'm not going to allow myself to take away from the positives that have happened here on this floor tonight."
The Lakers successfully turned down the volume on the vociferous Utah crowd, using a steady flow of fast-break points, 3-pointers and free throws to pound the Jazz.
By the end of the first half the fans were reduced to chanting derisively at the referees, as if it were the official's fault the Jazz shot 33 percent, or that they played defense that let the Lakers get whatever shots they wanted. Hey, maybe the refs chartered the plane for Andrei Kirilenko's ill-timed trip to San Francisco Thursday to take care of visa issues at the French embassy.
Actually, one fan did blame Kirilenko, commandeering a public address microphone during halftime and using the arena loudspeakers to urge Jazz owner Larry Miller to trade Kirilenko.
And by the third quarter, one Jazz fan was directing the same nasty verb used for the referees at Carlos Boozer.
Boozer was ineffective as he was for most of the series, going out with 12 points on 5-of-16 shooting before fouling out, as the Lakers successfully defended him with a variety of looks. These playoffs represented a step backward for him.
Williams had nothing to be ashamed of, with another 21 points and 14 assists. But the Lakers did keep him from driving the lane at will, and they can actually be proud of the way they defended him and the Jazz's pick-and-roll.
"I think we'll remember most of all the fact that we played with some sense of urgency, determination in this ballgame," Jackson said. So while the Jazz lamented their inability to match the Lakers' intensity ("They got after us hard," Sloan said. "It looked like we didn't have any life to compete against them.") the Lakers moved on. Kirilenko, who was still talking about passports in the postgame locker room, will now have the opportunity to use his for his European travels.
The Lakers are ready to apply the knowledge they gained this round, poised to take the next step.