The defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers have had an interesting postseason to say the least as they have had it very easy at times and have also really struggled at times.

In the first round of the playoffs, a young and motivated Oklahoma City Thunder team lead by arguably the best scorer in the league in Kevin Durant gave the Los Angeles Lakers a run for their money as they beat the defending champs twice. Even though the Lakers eventually advanced to the second round after six games, Kobe Bryant and company were tested much earlier than anticipated and many people started second guessing the Lakers chances of repeating as NBA champs.

In the second round, things got much easier as the Lakers faced off against an outmatched Utah Jazz team which went down in four games. After the sweep of the Jazz, the defending champs looked like they were back to form, but they still had to get through their division rivals in the Western Conference Finals going head to head against the Phoenix Suns.

Despite the Phoenix Suns having somewhat of an unexpected breakout year after trading Shaquille O’Neal to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the offseason, the Los Angeles Lakers were the overwhelming favorite to advance to the NBA Finals.

In the first two games of these Western Conference Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers were on fire as just dominated the Phoenix Suns from start to finish in both games one and two. Not only were the Lakers playing great as a team, but Kobe Bryant was damn near unstoppable as the Suns just had no answer for the Black Mamba.

Heading into game five, the series had taken a drastic change as the Phoenix Suns were able to win two straight games on their home floor with some solid zone defense that completely confused the Lakers offense.

Throughout most of game five, the Lakers got back to their dominate ways and at one point got out to an 18 point lead, but the Suns were able to battle back and cut the lead to just three in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter.

With time running out, the Suns only hope was to hit a desperation three and that they did with Jason Richardson get lucky with a banked three with 3.5 seconds remaining.

Of course, as usual, this was Kobe time! Everyone knew that the reigning NBA Finals MVP was getting the basketball, but they did expect him to try and pull off a catch-and-shot with 3.5 on the clock. Despite having plenty of time to set up a good shot, Kobe immediately shot the ball will missed everything, but luckily Ron Artest was there to save the day as he caught Kobe’s air ball and put it right back up to finish off the Suns 103-101.

Needless to say, with time expiring, Artest’s put-back turned out to be the game-winner and despite just scoring four points, Ron-Ron was the hero in game five.

Now the series will head back to Phoenix for game six in which the Suns will be facing elimination for the first time in the Western Conference Finals.

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