Lakers Finally Take a Step Up

Opportunity came to the Lakers anew Saturday, arriving like a gift for the second night in a row at that, and bringing with it all the trimmings. Trouble, for example.

The chance to gain ground on Seattle some 24 hours earlier ended in a disappointing defeat, and here they were early in a game at Oakland Coliseum Arena, aware that Utah had already lost and on the way to rolling the Golden State Warriors without much hassle. And then the Lakers wasted much of the lead.

But they would not waste the opportunity. Capitalizing in a way they were unable to against Phoenix, they recovered from a bad third quarter to win, 96-84, before 19,821 as Shaquille O’Neal had 35 points and 15 rebounds.

That cut the Jazz lead for what could turn out to be the second-best record in the West to two games with four to play, including a head-to-head matchup at the Great Western Forum in the regular-season finale. It realistically cut it to one, in fact, because the Lakers have all but clinched the tiebreaker by building a three-game advantage among conference games with the same four to play, the second criteria. So even if Utah wins April 19, L.A. should still claim what could be an important factor.

“I think it’s big,” Derek Fisher said of the win that gave the Lakers 57 for the season, one more than 1996-97. “It definitely goes down in the journal, when we look back and look at things we can build on. I think this is one we can build on.”

So went the healing process, and the exorcism. The Lakers’ last visit here had resulted in arguably their worst showing of the season, a 93-92 defeat Dec. 10 at a time the Warriors were dealing with the height of the Latrell Sprewell controversy. Harris was sure to mention that to his team earlier Saturday, along with the fact that Golden State had rallied from an 18-point third-quarter deficit Feb. 11 at the Great Western Forum before losing by six.

There were also the wounds from the night before to deal with. The only question being where to start.

That O’Neal and Harris had exchanged words on the bench late in the second quarter? There is nothing to suggest this was anything but competitive juices on the part of O’Neal or that there is any rift between the two, but it wasn’t the first time Harris has gotten on his superstar for taking bad fouls.

O’Neal came to the sideline seething after being called for an offensive foul and then being whistled again on the ensuing Phoenix possession--his third overall, earning a seat with 3:34 remaining. Harris said something to him, and O’Neal responded. It went like that for a few seconds.

“Shaq has to maintain focus,” Harris said later. “He let a lack of calls [in his favor] cause him to take two fouls, and then he’s out of the game. We’ve lost three of the last 20 games [after the loss to the Suns], and it’s no surprise that in each of the three games Shaq got into foul trouble. That’s not a criticism, rather an observation. I spent 10 minutes lecturing how he should be MVP before the game, and I believe that. But an MVP doesn’t get himself knocked out of a game just because he feels he’s not getting his dues.”

Responded O’Neal, trying to immediately defuse a potential controversy: “There isn’t going to be a problem.”

That crisis cleared, the Lakers had spent most of Friday night risking serious neck injury, so fast and with such ease did the Suns continuously blow by them, turning a basketball game into a track meet. The official stats gave Phoenix a 27-9 advantage in fastbreak points, but the L.A. coaching staff had it 40-14.

“That’s the best any team has run on us all year,” Harris said.

And it happened in their own building.

“That’s just not acceptable,” he said.

Added Jones: “They were getting layup after layup, open shot after open shot.”

Just imagine how thrilled the Lakers were with their defense come the third quarter Saturday. Given the opportunity for a blowout, and with it the chance to wash away most of the bad memories from the Sun game, they went up by 18 points in the first quarter and 19 at halftime, then went in the tank.

Golden State outscored them, 26-18, after intermission, pulling within five. The Lakers got the lead back to 11 at the start of the fourth and retained control most of the rest of the way.