LOS ANGELES (AP):
Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers made the most of their second chance on Sunday, beating Orlando 101-96 in overtime to take a 2-0 lead in the NBA finals series.
Orlando rookie Courtney Lee missed a potential winning lay-up as regulation ended, forcing the game into overtime. Pau Gasol scored seven points in overtime as the Lakers, so dominant in a 25-point win in the series opener, survived to win by five points over the Magic in Game Two.
"There is a sense of relief because they played very well," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "There's no doubt they had every opportunity or chance to win."
If Orlando don't come back and win a game in the series, Lee's miss may go down as one of the biggest gaffes in finals history.
First finals win
He had a chance to give the Magic their first finals win, but misfired.
"We missed it. I don't know what else to say," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "We executed well, Hedo (Turkoglu) made a great pass. I'm not trying to be a pain ... Hedo made a great pass and (Lee) just missed it."
Orlando may not get a better shot to beat the Lakers.
"We blew a lot of assignments tonight - a lot of assignments - and we still managed to get a win," Bryant said.
When it was finally over, Derek Fisher and the Lakers jogged to the locker room, smiling and high-fiving fans along the way.
Turkoglu trudged through the tunnel dejected, a towel hanging from his head.
Bryant scored 29 points, Gasol added 24 and 10 rebounds and Lamar Odom 19 points for the Lakers, who won Game One by 25, but needed 53 minutes to put away the Magic in Game Two.
Rashard Lewis scored 34 - 18 in the second quarter alone - and Dwight Howard had 17 points and 16 rebounds for Orlando.
With the score tied at 88-88 in regulation, Lee missed the first of two late-game shots when he drove the lane and missed a contested lay-up with 10.5 seconds remaining.
Called time
The Lakers called time with 9.1 seconds to play and after Odom caught the inbounds pass, he quickly gave it to Bryant, who drove into a crowd. Bryant attempted an off-balance 12-footer, but his shot was blocked from behind by Turkoglu with 1.8 seconds left.
The horn sounded, the clock expired to zeros and Jack Nicholson and the star-studded Staples Center crowd braced for overtime.
But the officials huddled at the scorer's table and decided to put 0.6 seconds back on the clock because Turkoglu grabbed the ball and called timeout. Turkoglu couldn't find anyone open and was forced to call a timeout.
On the Magic's second attempt, Lee got free on a perfectly executed play and caught Turkoglu's long lob pass as he neared the left side of the basket. But with seven-foot Gasol closing in on him, Lee's shot caromed off the backboard and front of the rim.
Lee put his hands behind his head in disbelief and began a long walk back to the bench as his teammates tried to console him.