Kobe's outlook on the series

has given me hope. After the Lakers terrible collapse in game four Kobe is not ready to surrender. He is holding his head high and is ready to play.

“The series ain’t over,” he said. “It’s far from over."

After winning game three and giving the Laker faithful hope, the Lakers blew a 24 point lead to the Celtics to go down 3-1. Tonights game five is critical and according to history, is pointless, no team has ever one the finals after being down 3-1 (0-28). If they do win tonight, they have the unenviable task of trying to win two straight in Boston. With so much mounted agaisnt Kobe and the Lakers, you could expect the pressure to get to someone, yet Kobe seemed as calm and cool as ever during the press conference. Bryant claims that the Lakers have moved on past their monumental collapse and seems to be focused on trying to win the series.

“We’ve got to take care of business on Sunday,” said Bryant. “So what are we going to do? How am I going to get my teammates in the right frame of mind, make sure they’re energetic, and that’s what it’s been all about.”

Kobe, at this point, was saying all the right things until he admitted this, which may cause him to lose any street cred he has.

"It was awesome,” he said. “He had more problems dealing with Voldemort than what we have dealing with the media and the Celtics.”

Supposedly he was reading Harry Potter to his daughters for most of the last couple days, but we really know he was reading for himself. Game 5 is tonight, coverage starts at 8:30 on ABC, and the tip around 9 o'clock.