SoCal NBA Playoff Preview

San Antonio at LA Lakers, 6:00 pm, TNT

Western Conference finals, Lakers lead, 1-0

LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- The San Antonio Spurs try to put a heartbreaking loss behind them when they take on the Los Angeles Lakers in Game Two of the Western Conference finals on Friday.

Despite leading nearly the entire game and holding a 20-point advantage in the third quarter, the Spurs failed to close out the Lakers, who rallied from behind for an 89-85 victory in Wednesday's Game One. Kobe Bryant went scoreless in the first quarter and managed just two points on three attempts by halftime.

However, the NBA's Most Valuable Player stepped up in the second half, pouring in 25 of his 27 points - including 14 in the fourth quarter. "Kobe was doing his trust-his-teammates thing in the first half," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "In the second half, he went to work." "I just tried to manage the flow of the game," Bryant said. "I can get (my shot off) any time and, in the second half, I did that." Pau Gasol added 19 points and seven rebounds for the Lakers, who improved to 7-0 at Staples Center this postseason. "The way we just kept battling, just gave us a chance and put us in a position to win the game," Gasol said.

Tim Duncan finished with 30 points and 18 rebounds while Tony Parker added 18, 10 and six assists for the Spurs, who did not have a chance to practice before Game One after they encountered travel troubles en route to Los Angeles from New Orleans following their Game Seven victory over the Hornets.

However, Parker didn't blame his team's meltdown on its delayed arrival. "No one gives any excuse, we were in pretty good shape and had a good lead," he said. "We're not going to try to think we were tired or stuff like that. "We had a great chance to win the game and we just didn't play well enough in the fourth quarter." San Antonio is in bad shape if history means anything as Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson is 40-0 when winning Game One of a playoff series.