updated 1:21 a.m. ET May 22, 2008

LOS ANGELES - Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers waited until the third quarter to get going. Once they did, the San Antonio Spurs couldn’t stop them.

And the defending NBA champions contributed to their own demise with a brutal, uncharacteristic fourth-period performance.

Bryant scored all but two of his 27 points after halftime, including a go-ahead, 10-foot jumper in the lane with 23.9 seconds remaining, and the Lakers rallied from a 20-point deficit to beat the Spurs 89-85 on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.

“Kobe, he was doing a trust-his-teammates thing in the first half,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “That’s why he had five assists, and he was checking it all out and see where his territory was going to be. In the second half, he went to work.

“Obviously a difficult loss and we had a great opportunity. We didn’t take advantage of it. Hurts like hell.”

Bryant, who finished with nine assists and five rebounds, shot 1-for-3 in the first half and 10-for-18 in the second.

“I know I can make that push and I knew once I did, I could get the game back under control, get it under 10 where we knew we could be in striking distance,” Bryant said. “In the first half, we were a little rusty, a little sluggish and a little tentative. Second half, it wasn’t there.

“It is big for a young team to come back from 20 against the defending champs.”

Defensive specialist Bruce Bowen held Bryant in check in the first half, but it didn’t last.

“Kobe put them on his back,” Bowen said. “We had an excellent opportunity, and we let it get away. I’m very disappointed.”

Game 2 will be played Friday night before the best-of-seven series shifts to San Antonio for the third and fourth games. The Lakers are 7-0 in the postseason at Staples Center, where they’ve won 13 straight games overall.

Bryant’s jumper put the Lakers ahead for good after two free throws by Manu Ginobili with 1:22 remaining and a follow shot by Tim Duncan with 41 seconds left tied the game at 85. After Bryant’s basket, Ginobili missed a 3-pointer and Sasha Vujacic made two free throws with 7.3 seconds to go, completing the scoring.

The Lakers outscored the Spurs 24-13 in the fourth quarter, when San Antonio shot 3-for-21, including 1-for-9 from 3-point range.

“We almost gave up home-court advantage to a great effort by the Spurs,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “That was a big comeback. We were deep in the hole, there was no doubt about it. Twenty down and half the quarter gone in the third period. It was a struggle to fight back into the ballgame by the end of the third quarter.”

Pau Gasol had 19 points and seven rebounds, Vujacic and Vladimir Radmanovic scored 10 points apiece, and Lamar Odom had eight points and eight rebounds for the Lakers.

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