Lakers Get 60th and More

Sunday comes to the Lakers as a gift as much as a showdown, hardly a chance meeting with the Utah Jazz since it had been on the schedule since last summer, but a second chance of monolithic proportions. OK, a fourth or a fifth chance.

Given an opportunity they didn’t think would exist themselves, the Lakers can win the Pacific Division title if they beat Utah and Seattle losses at Portland.

They trounced the Dallas Mavericks, 124-95, before 17,505 at the Forum on Friday as Shaquille O’Neal shook off the painful effects of injuries to both thumbs to score 43 points, and the SuperSonics lost at home to San Antonio.

So much for the chance to celebrate breaking the 60-win barrier for the first time since 1989-90. The Lakers got it, and their 15th victory in the last 17 games, and must now immediately put it in the past. For the second season in a row, they will play for the Pacific title on the final day.

If the Lakers beat the Jazz at the Forum and the SuperSonics lose to the Trail Blazers in Portland, the Lakers get the top spot in the division, No. 2 in the Western Conference since Utah clinched the best record in the NBA Friday, and a first-round meeting with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

If either the Lakers lose or the SuperSonics win on Sunday, the Lakers are No. 2 in the division, No. 3 in the West and open the playoffs against the Trail Blazers.

Laker players arrived in their locker room just in time to watch the final minutes of the Utah-Phoenix game. “Yeah,” Coach Del Harris said, noting that the Jazz victory took away from the one by his team, “it does. On the other other hand, let’s be thankful for what we have.”

They have Sunday and a shot after all.

The run to 60 had taken a back seat to the race in the Western Conference, but offered intrigue nonetheless, mainly in that it once seemed out of reach as the Lakers stumbled, only to then reel off win streaks that not only made the plateau possible but realistic.

As if anyone outside of Los Angeles noticed. Or maybe even many within, this being the team still battling the perception that the season has consistently been on the brink of disaster since Thanksgiving.

“It’s crazy,” Derek Fisher said. “The other three teams, everybody regards them as great and that they have a legitimate chance to win the title. And then there’s the Lakers. It’s like everybody forgot about us.

“I don’t want to say that it bothers us, but it is something that we’ve talked about from time to time. Sometimes we got frustrated hearing about how much better everybody is than us, even though we’ve been there all year. Sometimes it’s strange.”

Sometimes? But here the Lakers were anyway. Of course, maybe part of it was that they had been downplaying the 60-victory milestone in recent weeks themselves, even though it was clear that getting there would be an accomplishment and not something that might have been expected, as was the case in November.

Come Friday, though, no one was underselling the value.

“As I told you many times,” Coach Del Harris said before tipoff, “it was never a goal until we got to 59. Tonight, it’s a goal.”

Because of what it meant for the night.

Because of what it meant for the season.

“It’s a milestone that’s significant,” Harris said.