Foursome Not Too Sad

The group got together on the court before the game for a picture. And that was it.

The four Lakers in the all-star game never played at the same time, but the development passed without much disappointment.

“We’ll be together tomorrow,” Eddie Jones said.

The closest they got Sunday in Madison Square Garden, during the 135-114 victory for the East, came when Nick Van Exel, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal played the final 17.3 seconds of the third quarter.

West Coach George Karl, having made no promises in previous days that he would put the largest all-star contingent from any one team since the Philadelphia 76ers of 1983 in the game together, never got close again. Two Lakers played at the same time on a few occasions in the second half, but then O’Neal and Bryant spent the final 14:44 on the bench.

“It was a 25-point blowout,” Karl said of the fourth quarter, when the East actually led by as many as 27. “I felt it was much more important to reward everybody rather than to focus on an individual situation.

“We didn’t have a chance to win the game. I probably would have played Shaq some and Kobe some, probably brought Gary [Payton] back in the game if it was a winnable basketball game.”

Of course, there was the other theory, preferred by conspiracy specialists: Karl, loyal to his North Carolina roots, was keeping Bryant seated so he couldn’t mount a late run and steal MVP honors from fellow Tar Heel Michael Jordan.

“Really doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Karl said.

Or as Jones noted about Laker minutes in the fourth quarter and the day:

“It’s an all-star game. People are having fun. Don’t make it more now than it is.”