Scanning the blogs and beats following the Lakers' 93-91 road win over the Spurs in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals...

48 Minutes Of Hell: "I'll be honest with you. I think this Lakers team has more talent than the Spurs. I think this Lakers team is better than the Spurs. I have said for sometime that if the Spurs were going to make it out of the Western Conference it was going to take a victory over a superior squad and the squad I was referring to was none other than the Los Angeles Lakers. But, I'm sorry, I give them no credit on this evening. If they take this series, I will be a gracious loser. I will commend them on their poise and their focus, and wish them luck in the NBA Finals. But on this evening they will receive no such commendations. They didn't deserve to lose tonight’s game, but they sure as hell didn't deserve to win it either."

Bill Plaschke, LA Times: "Two bad calls equals no bad calls. The difference in this game wasn't in Barry's 24-foot jumper or in the 24-second shot clock. The difference was in No. 24, period. Yeah, the guy who missed that quick jumper, the guy who missed a wild layup a few seconds earlier, the guy who was actually scolded by Phil Jackson for being too aggressive. Nobody is talking about it. Nobody was thinking about it. Even the man himself seemed surprised to be asked about it. But look closer and see that a night when he missed more than half his shots was yet another testament to the greatness of Kobe Bryant."

Pounding The Rock: "Complaining about free throws is just grasping at straws, like a vanquished foe begging for their life. It's unbecoming. The story of this game is the really the same as the story for the season: old and slow. The announcers repeatedly talked about how the Lakers were "quicker to the ball." Well, yeah. They're quicker to everything. They're quicker answering the door. They're quicker taking a dump. They're quicker. I mean, Robert Horry played 16 minutes. A guy that passed up a wide-open 4 footer played 16 minutes. A guy that has LITERALLY done NOTHING all year to earn a SINGLE minute of playing time plays 16 minutes in the biggest game of the year. Shouldn't this automatically disqualify the Spurs?"

Jeff McDonald, SA Express-News: "In his wildest dreams, the play would have gone off without a hitch. Brent Barry would have gotten his open look. He would have drained his sixth 3-pointer. Then, two comebacks — one for the Spurs in a pivotal Game 4 of the Western Conference finals, one for Barry in what has been somewhat of a lost season for him — would have been complete. That would have been the fairy tale. Funny thing about fairy tales. You don’t always get to write them at will."

Lakers Blog: "Yes, it was a foul, no, it didn't cost San Antonio the game. Had Barry shot as soon as Fish hit him with the contact, it would be a different story, but by putting the ball on the floor, Barry eliminated the opportunity to be put on the line. Had the refs called that a shooting foul, it would have been a far more egregious whistle than the non-call on Fish."

Buck Harvey, SA Express-News: "One lucky shot deserves another, Shaquille O'Neal once famously said. That was the last time the Lakers were in San Antonio for the playoffs. Then Tim Duncan threw in a leaning jumper for the lead — and Derek Fisher and 0.4 followed. This time — with Fisher again involved — one bad call deserved another. This time the refs didn't see that a Fisher jumper had grazed the rim, not resetting the shot clock. This time the refs chose to look the other way when Fisher leaped and landed on Brent Barry. This time the Lakers deserved what they got. They clearly outplayed the Spurs."

Forum Blue and Gold (live blog): "I’ll gladly admit that that was a foul and Barry should have been shooting three free throws. But everyone knows you can’t count on the refs to blow any kind of whistle at the end of the game. They act like WWE-type contact is permissible at the end of games. But let me be the first to point out that the refs missed calls all night and this wasn’t the only call they missed. They missed that Duncan travel most noticeably and a bunch of other stuff. It’s sad a game has to end like that. Fisher needs to not foul from 30 feet away from the bucket. He’s got to get his head in the game when for Game 5."

Steve Dillbeck, LA Daily News: "It should seem clear to most basketball observers by now, the Lakers are the overall superior team, at least when focused. But the thing about watching youth develop is having to go through all those growing pains. All those wobbly moments, all those what-were-you-thinking moments? The Lakers should have won this without any crazy last-second dramatics, or being on the fortunate end of a non-call at the final buzzer. "There are obviously still some things we have to learn as a young ballclub," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson."

Related: The Internets are alive, 2008 NBA Playoffs