Lakers Stay on Course for Three-peat

The LA Lakers remain on course for their third successive NBA title after out-hustling the San Antonio Spurs in the stretch yet again to clinch a 4-1 series victory in the Western conference semi-finals.

Kobe Bryant scored 26 points and Shaquille O'Neal added 21 points and 11 rebounds as the Lakers squeezed past the Spurs 93-87 in game five. The two-time defending champions will now play the Sacramento Kings - who defeated the Dallas Mavericks 4-1 - in the Western Conference finals that start on Saturday.

The Lakers trailed 45-39 at the half and struggled at times against Tim Duncan and the Spurs, but they staged yet another fourth-quarter rally to win the semi-final series. Bryant's basket with 2:27 remaining put LA ahead for good and the Lakers finished the game on a 10-4 run that was enough to offset Duncan's 34 points and 25 rebounds performance.

"Three-peat, three-peat," chanted the Lakers fans after the match. Judging by the way their team is playing, there's every chance of them doing it. Certainly Spurs coach Gregg Popovich thinks so.

"The Lakers played like champions in the last four or five minutes of every game we played," he conceded. "The Lakers got it done. Kobe was great again down the stretch. It is the way the Lakers do things now."

The Lakers improved to 7-1 this post-season and to an incredible 23-2 in their last 25 playoff games since they won the 1999-2000 title, and history certainly favours them against the Kings. They have won seven of their last eight games against Sacramento, starting with a four-game sweep in the second round of last year's play-offs. They are also 16-5 against the Kings since Phil Jackson became their coach in 1999.

No wonder Shaquille O'Neal is confident. "We're one of the only teams that have won on their court," he said. "We just have to play our game. We're not going to play back and forth. They have something to prove. We don't."

Meanwhile in the Eastern conference, Paul Pierce scored 18 points as part of a balanced attack as the Boston Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons 90-81 to advance to the play-off finals for the first time since 1988.

Kenny Anderson added 17 points, Antoine Walker, who fouled out, had 16, Rodney Rogers scored 14 and Tony Battie added 10 as the Celtics improved to 21-0 when playing a Game 5 with a 3-1 lead.

"I think right now we have an opportunity of a lifetime and we have to take full advantage of it," Walker admitted. "Being in the Eastern Conference finals is going to be huge for us."

"The Celtics just played extremely well," Pistons coach Rick Carlisle conceded. "They've got a great chance to go all the way to the Finals and play for the championship."

The Celtics will face the winner of the New Jersey-Charlotte series in the conference finals. The Nets lead the Hornets 3-1 with Game 5 in New Jersey tonight.