Los Angeles Lakers back in the National Basketball Association finals

Mission accomplished, Los Angeles Lakers in National Basketball Association finals, but they need to take one more step if they want to win their first championship in a decade and dedicate it to the late Kobe Bryant.

The purple and gold top-seeded Lakers eliminated the pesky, never quit 3rd-seeded Denver Nuggets, 117-107, and win the Western Conference final in five games in the best-of-seven series and now await the survivor of the Eastern Conference finals, with the 5th-seeded Miami Heat up 3-2 over the 3rd-seeded Boston Celtics, and they play game six Monday night at the ESPN World Wide of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

At the same site Saturday night, superstar LeBron James showed up with a big game in mind and was right in range with the game-highs 38 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists. He played a game-high 40 minutes and shot 15-for-25 from the field.

After LA finished its celebration, James said: “The Nuggets are quite good and we wanted to keep them from another game. Heck, winning twice after trailing 3-1 was quite an accomplishment. Now we’re happy to play in the finals, win it for the memory of Kobe.”

The Lakers, who are second to Boston in NBA championships, led 33-30 after one quarter and upped it to 61-51 at halftime. Denver made a third-quarter run and trailed only 87-84 after three quarters, but were outscored 30-23 in the last quarter, with James turning in 10 points, controlling the backboards, and 7-foot Anthony Davis scoring seven of his 27 points down the stretch. He added five boards and three assists and made 8-of-16 tries from the floor.

The two had help. Danny Green and Alex Caruso contributed 11 points each, Dwight Howard was good for nine rebounds, LA had more boards, 46-36, more assists, 25-23, more steals, 6-5, blocks, 8-5, and made 9-of-14 3s, and had more turnovers, 13-11. Los Angeles was 82.8 from the foul line and  54.5 from the field.

Denver checked out with its talented 7-foot Nikola Jokic tossing in team-high points, 20, same as Jerami Grant. with Grant’s nine boards the team-high and Jokic with the team-high five assists to go with seven rebounds. Paul Milsap and Jamal Murray adding 19 points apiece, as well as Monte Morris and Michael Porter, Jr., scoring 10 points each. The Nuggets were 8-for-30 from the 3, shot 42.2 from the field and 88.5 from the foul line.

But most important to Laker nation, there’s a final to be played and with James preparing to continue his drive to his first championship with the purple and gold, and to add to his previous title won in Cleveland. And right now, it’s just a short break and awaiting the challenge of Miami or Boston. In this restarted shortened season, there’s no home field advantage, just a final in the bubble.