During Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals between the Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs, San Antonio staked its claim to an 8-point lead after three quarters of play and a double-digit lead with just over six minutes to go. It surely looked as if San Antonio was going to even this series up at two games a piece and be halfway to beating the champs.

However, the Lakers would not go down nearly that easily, with a sudden momentum switch at the proverbial flip of a light. In the next 51 seconds, Los Angeles would make five free throws, cutting the lead to five. After three more minutes, and still no San Antonio field goal since being up by ten, the game would be tied with 2:08 to go, after Kobe Bryant conjured up some more playoff heroics by hitting consecutive three-pointers.

Do you really expect me to tell the rest of the game story?

Of course, the Lakers won, putting them up three games to one in a pivotal series, and setting a professional sports record for consecutive road playoff wins with 11 in a row.

The two teams will head back to Los Angeles for a potential series-ending Game 5 on Tuesday.

Likely, no one thought that the Lakers would win Sunday's game when it was a 10-point lead for the Spurs, but we all knew that they could.

Two stats that are telling of the astonishing win by the Lakers are one, that San Antonio was held to 3-of-17 shooting in the last period, and two, that the incredible Kobe Bryant outscored the Spurs by himself in the fouth, 12-10. Also, to Bryant's amazing quarter on Sunday was the point where he made the game-winning put back after crashing the boards with five seconds left, redeeming himself after he had just dribbled the ball off of his foot the same possession, only to be recovered by teammate Derek Fisher.

Meanwhile, with Sacramento leading the other Western Conference semifinal, the Kings/Lakers Western Conference final we have been hoping for all last season may come true.

But then again, didn't we expect last year's Western Conference final series between the Spurs and Lakers to be a seven-game series?

The heart of the matter is that whoever is the next one to beat the Lakers in the playoffs, whether it be this year or three years from now, will have to play the series of their life to beat this team.

Around the league, the aforementioned Kings/akers conference finals and an Eastern Conference matchup between the Nets and Celtics seem like sure things after all four series went to 3-1 series this past weekend. Making our way around the league, the Hornets probably played their last game ever in Charlotte on Sunday, losing to the Nets.

Staying in the East, after the Celtics and Pistons played the lowest scoring game ever since the inception of the shot clock, the Celtics continued on the likely road to the East finals for them, winning by 11 in Boston on Sunday.

Finally, the Mavericks went down 3-1 by losing to the Kings in overtime on Saturday, despite fouling out both Chris Webber and Vlade Divac.

While the other games are important to the complexion of the playoffs, Game 4 between Los Angeles and San Antonio may be looked back on as the turning point for the Lakers' third straight title.

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