Lakers’ success comes down to more than Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol

Shaquille O’Neal got the message. And he sent one back to Kobe Bryant.

But unlike some of their past encounters, it was kind, even understanding.

“Congratulations Kobe, u deserve it,” O’Neal wrote on his Twitter account. “U played great. Enjoy it man. I know what ur sayin…”

It was a response to Bryant’s postgame declaration that it was important to win a fifth championship because it was “one more than Shaq.”

“You know how I am,” Bryant continued after the Lakers’ Game 7 victory over Boston. “I don’t forget anything.”

As much as the 83-79 victory was about the big-picture numbers — 16 championships for the Lakers, 11 for Phil Jackson, five for Bryant and, often forgotten, five for Derek Fisher — the Lakers wouldn’t have done it without contributions from sources not named Bryant or Pau Gasol.

Ron Artest led the Lakers in the first half, scoring 12 points, collecting three steals and going nose-to-nose with Paul Pierce under the basket, like two boxers before a bout, after the Boston forward fouled him on a drive.

Fisher was solid in the fourth quarter, not that it should be a surprise any longer, his three-pointer with 6:12 left pulling the Lakers into a 64-64 tie on their long, arduous crawl back from a 13-point third-quarter deficit.

“That’s D Fish. That’s just who he is,” Bryant said. “There’s not enough words of praise that I can use to describe him and how I feel about him.”

Even Sasha Vujacic created a big moment, inserted into the game because of his free-throw accuracy and making two from the line with 11.7 seconds left to put the Lakers up, 83-79.

The Lakers needed every point from every player after a first half in which they scored only 34 points and shot 26.5%, their worst marks in a half in their playoff run.

It ended well for them, obviously, exactly two years after getting drubbed by Boston in a much-chronicled 39-point loss in the 2008 Finals.

“We haven’t stopped thinking about it,” Fisher said. “Great accomplishments come out of negativity, setbacks, adversity. There couldn’t have been a more embarrassing loss to have in front of the whole world than that night, and the last two seasons we’ve tried to erase that.”

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

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