28 May,2009 10:13 AM IST | | AFP
Kobe Bryant scored 22 points and Lamar Odom had 19 points and 14 rebounds as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets 103-94 yesterday in game five of their semi-final series.
Pau Gasol also had 14 points for Los Angeles who took a three games to two lead in the best-of-seven series to determine the Western Conference representative in the NBA finals.
"I wanted to change it up tonight by making me more of a decoy to try and open up opportunities for my teammates," Bryant said.
Game six is tomorrow at Denver.
It has been a back and forth series and yesterday's game was no different as the teams were tied 25-25 at the end of the first quarter and 56-56 at the half and 76-76 heading into the fourth.
Carmelo Anthony scored a game high 31 points and Kenyon Martin had 12 points and five rebounds for Denver who looked for awhile like they would pull away in the third quarter.
But the Lakers fought back to outscore Denver 27-18 in the fourth, finishing with five players in double figure scoring.
