Lakers comeback or Spurs meltdown?

My wife the Spurs fan, Ryantific the Laker lover and I went round and round on this one last night following Los Angeles’ remarkable comeback in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.
Lakers MVP Kobe Bryant scored all but two of his 27 points in the second half, helping Los Angeles overcome a 20-point deficit to take Wednesday’s series opener 89-85 and, more importantly, keep the home-court advantage in what is shaping up to be another classic series.

So was Game 1 a monumental Spurs meltdown or an extraordinary Lakers comeback?

Being the objective middle man, I have to say it was a little bit of both.
Don’t call it a comeback, call it a meltback – one part meltdown, one part comeback. (After all, it was the second-biggest, second-half comeback in the playoffs since 1998.)
How it happened
To pull off such a rally, in a tone-setting game of this magnitude, the Lakers definitely needed some help. Los Angeles got it in the fourth quarter when a tiring Spurs squad went 3 of 21 from the floor, including 1 of 9 from beyond the arc.
At the same time, the Lakers were bound to come around in front of the hometown crowd after coming out “a little rusty, a little sluggish and a little tentative,” in the words of Bryant, having not played a game since wrapping up the Utah series on Friday.
Los Angeles’ offense finally started clicking in the second half, but the Lakers didn’t do anything they hadn’t been doing all season. In fact, the 46 points they put up over the final two quarters was well off the 54.2 points they’ve averaged in the second half of their first 10 playoff games. The most impressive aspect of that second-half surge was what the Lakers did defensively, holding a veteran Spurs squad to 34 points (including just 13 points in the fourth quarter).
And while Kobe turned in an MVP performance in the second half, the bench also played a big role with 21 points in the game (San Antonio’s bench was limited to 11 points).
Guard play and defense
As I stated in an earlier post, with all of the solid power forwards in the NBA's Final Four, defense and guard play are key in these series.
In terms of guard play Wednesday, Kobe simply took over the second half with his ability to create shots for himself and dish to Pau Gasol underneath the hoop.
For the Spurs, Manu Ginobili had another off game, going 3 of 13 against Ryantific’s hero, Sasha Vujacic. Ginobili finished with 10 points, half his playoff average. Vujacic’s 10 points marked only the fifth time he’s gone for double digits in the postseason.
The other difference in the game was the three-point shooting.
While the Lakers kept their cool and refrained from bombing away when they fell behind, going 4 of 10 from long range, the Spurs were a sorry 5 of 20 from three-point range.
If Ginobili hits that three at the end, we’re talking about the Lakers blowing Game 1 and possibly the series.
Instead, Los Angeles (52-7 when going up 1-0 in a 7-game series) and Phil Jackson (40-0 after winning Game 1 in a best of seven) survived a scare and kept the Spurs from swiping one on the road, which San Antonio will have to do in Game 2, 5 or 7 if they want to get back to the finals.