A very rare occasion where Ron Artest beat the buzzer with a put back shot after boarding Kobe Bryant's miss and the LA Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns 103-101 on Thursday night to advance a 3-2 edge in the Western Conference finals.
Kobe scored 30 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists for the Lakers, but Artest was the unsung hero with just his second goal of the night.
Phoenix Suns’ Jason Richardson made 3-pointer with 3.5 seconds left to tie the ball game.
Kobe missed a corner shot, but Artest got the rebound and put the ball back into the goal, luckily went in.
Lakers can finish the series on Game 6 in Phoenix. Steve Nash had 29 points and 11 assists in a stirring second-half effort for the Suns, who hacked away at Los Angeles' lead throughout the fourth quarter.
Pau Gasol had 21 points and nine rebounds for the Lakers, who rebounded from consecutive losses in Phoenix with their best defensive performance of the series, forcing 15 turnovers and holding Phoenix to mediocre shooting - yet the Suns came agonizingly close to handing Los Angeles its first home loss of the postseason.
The Lakers improved to 8-0 at home, where they'll play Game 7 on Monday night if the Suns hold serve in a series featuring five wins for the home team.
The Western Conference Finals, now tied, 2-2, returns to Los Angeles for Game 5 on Thursday night. Game 6 will be Saturday night in Phoenix.
Frye and the Suns' reserves were the center of a remarkable sight.
In front of a standing, roaring crowd, they hit 3-pointer after 3-pointer against the Lakers' starters to put the game away.
In all, the Suns' reserves outscored the Lakers' bench by a whopping 54-20.
The leaders were Frye and Leandro Barbosa with 14 points each and Jared Dudley with 11. The trio hit 9-for-18 on 3-pointers.
With the Suns leading 89-87 early in the final quarter, each of these players nailed a 3-pointer to give the Suns a decisive 98-89 lead with 6:47 left.
"I thought they were great offensively...and I thought they were better defensively," Suns coach Alvin Gentry said.
With these players leading the way, the Suns starters, including stars Amar'e Stoudemire and Steve Nash, were bench-side cheerleaders for the first nine minutes of the final quarter.
"They're so unselfish," Gentry said of his players.
At one point, Gentry was about to replace Barbosa with starter Jason Richardson, but Richardson told Gentry, "He's going great, let's leave him in."
Gentry said, "It's really different than most NBA teams. We're more like a college team."
Frye had hit only 1-for-20 shots in the first three games.
"I told you I was going to continue to shoot, and my teammates believed in me," he said.
The Lakers concentrated on Stoudemire, who scored 42 Sunday but was held to 21 in this game, still enough to lead the Suns.
"Their game plan tonight was to take me out," Stoudemire said.
Nash, playing with a broken nose, shot 3-for-11 for 15 points with eight assists and two turnovers.
Amare Stoudamire exploded with 42 points and answered his critics with an exclamation point, and there will be no sweep in the Western Conference finals.
Stoudemire matched his career playoff high with 42 points, 29 in the second half, and grabbed 11 rebounds to power the Phoenix Suns to a 118-109 victory Sunday night that cut the Los Angeles Lakers' lead in the series to 2-1.
The Suns can pull even with a victory at home in Game 4 on Tuesday night.
Phoenix, dominated inside in the first two games, won with its big men, and a big advantage at the free throw line.
Robin Lopez, whose 7-foot presence gave the Suns some much-needed toughness inside, scored 20 on 8-of-10 shooting in 31 minutes, by far his most playing time since returning from a back injury at the start of the series. Phoenix made 37-of-42 free throws, 14 of 18 by Stoudemire. The Lakers were 16 of 20 at the line.
Kobe Bryant had 36 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds. Pau Gasol scored 23 points, but the Lakers didn't get as much help from their supporting cast as they did in the first two games.
If LeBron James isn't sure he can win in Cleveland, President Barack Obama thinks there's an opportunity in his hometown.
"You know, like I said, I don't want to meddle," Obama told TNT. "I will say this: Rose, Joakim Noah it's a pretty good core. You know, you could see LeBron fitting in pretty well there."
Obama was interviewed about a number of basketball subjects by broadcaster Marv Albert on the White House basketball court. The interview will be shown Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET.
James can become a free agent this summer, and his decision whether to leave the Cavaliers is one of the hottest topics in sports. Though he's never said he wants out of his native Ohio, there's speculation he'd consider it after the Cavaliers were knocked out of the playoffs in the second round by the Boston Celtics.
"I think that the most important thing for LeBron right now is actually to find a structure where he's got a coach that he respects and is working hard with teammates who care about him and if that's in Cleveland, then he should stay in Cleveland," Obama said. "If he doesn't feel like he can get it there, then someplace else."
Obama compared James' situation to the Bulls not winning until Michael Jordan had confidence in Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen and the rest of his teammates. Once that happened, Chicago won six NBA championships in the 1990s.
"It wasn't until you got that framework around you that you could be a champion," Obama said. "Same thing happened with Kobe (Bryant). You know, I think that, first with Shaq (O'Neal) then later with (Pau) Gasol, you know, he's gotten that sense of a team around him and I think LeBron hasn't quite been able to get that yet. That's what he needs to find."
