It was a close back and forth to start the game. Both turned the ball over multiple times here, but the Lakers took advantage of this more, scoring 10 pts off turnovers alone. Kobe had 14 pts in the quarter and the Lakers go up by 7 after one.
In the 2nd quarter, the Bulls went on an early 10-0 run to grab the lead. Shaq came back from the bench and rallied his team, leading a tough Lakers defense and muscled his way inside. The Lakers regain the lead and go up by 3 at the half.
Jordan led everyone with 23 pts at the half. Shaq had 12 pts and 8 rebs.
The third quarter started out the same as the first as both teams stay close. Jordan continued his hot 1st half and led the Bulls back to regain the lead midway. The Lakers continued to stay tough however, and stayed consistent defensively to keep it close. Bulls up by only 2 going into the fourth.
THe 4th quarter was interesting. The Lakers, behind strong play from Kobe and Shaq on both ends, regained the lead with 5 minutes to go. The Bulls would not go away easily however and tied the game with a little over 1 minute to go. As expected, it was a Kobe-Jordan show in the end as both players hit clutch shots. With the Lakers up by 2, Kobe hit a dagger three from way beyond the arc to put the Lakers up by 5. Jordan answered on the other end with a 3-point play. From then, it was a FT game as the Bulls ran out of time, and Lakers hit their FT's rest of the way to walk away with the win.
Shaq got POG honors as he filled the stat sheet with 24 pts, 13 rebs, 4 assts, 6 stls, and 3 blocks. Kobe closed the game out, however, as he scored 16 4th quarter pts to finish with 36 pts, while handing out 8 assists.
Jordan had 39 pts, 4 rebs, 8 assts, 3 stls, 1 blk, but had 9 TO's in this game. Pippen was strong with 26-6-7 but had 6 TOs of his own. Turnovers spelled the demise of the Bulls who had 24 in the game (compared to 15 for the Lakers) leading to 23 Laker points off TOs.



