Not Done Yet--Just You Wait

This is why, prepared to bury the Lakers, your heart screaming for their heads, you wait.

You always wait.

You wait one more play. One more quarter. One more game.

You wait because you know that on the other side of darkness, there could always be wondrous nights like Wednesday’s.

One whisker from facing third down and impossible, the most talented and tormented team in basketball sneaked up on a hostile room and did what it does best.

Wrecked it, then walked away chuckling while the owners held their mouths and stared.

Against a seemingly smarter and more dedicated team, the Lakers passed, they pressed, they ran, they rebounded, and goodness, they worked.

As 17,000 KeyArena fans fled from around them, they did more than defeat the Seattle Supersonics for only the second time in six games this season in a 92-68 decision.

One moment, trailing by seven after one quarter, the Lakers were facing a 2-0 series deficit, an improbable task considering the SuperSonics’ home-court advantage.

The next moment, it was the Lakers who had the home-court advantage.

Nick Van Exel has nine points and three assists in 10 minutes.

Corie Blount has five offensive rebounds in three minutes.

Eddie Jones makes two three-pointers in three minutes.

Shaquille O’Neal is everywhere, all the time, once again.

And that defense, the statistically best defense in Laker playoff history, had Del Harris stalking and shaking his fist and finally beaming.

Eleven Seattle points in one quarter. Twelve in another.

The young team becomes the energized team. The experienced team ages before your eyes.

This is why you wait.

Suddenly, the Lakers can win this series without ever winning another game in Seattle.

Suddenly, they are winning a game on a night the Chicago Bulls are losing and everyone starts to think . . .

Oh, shut up. The series is still tied at one game apiece. The SuperSonics still have Gary Payton and more three-balls than the Minnesota Fats Memorial. The Lakers still have to prove they’ve done more than give the old guys a noogie.

But for a team in desperate need of a push, this one had some serious muscle.

This much muscle:

Late in the third quarter, with the Lakers ahead by 12, the boastful Seattle scoreboard suddenly was showing a highlight video accompanied by the song, “Say A Little Prayer.”

And the fans were actually clapping along with it.

All this, and Jon Barry played and Sean Rooks scored.

All this, and Kobe Bryant spent the first half in the locker room, suffering from flu, not an entirely unfortunate occurrence considering he could use the time to pull together his stuffy head.

“A fun, fun night,” Van Exel said. “We knew we had to step on them, and step on them early.”

Early, as in the second quarter, with the Lakers trailing by seven.

It started with, not surprisingly, Van Exel.

He had been struggling, shooting 32% in the playoffs. He had been ripping himself and his teammates.

As usual, he had everyone wondering, was he going to blow, and would there be ample cover when he did?

Well, he blew all right.

Blew around the Seattle defense to make an open three-pointer. Blew past Payton to feed Elden Campbell for a layup.

Later in the quarter, with the score tied, Van Exel hit Robert Horry for an open 18-footer, drove again for a foul that resulted in two more points, made a three-pointer, then a running jumper.

At halftime, the Lakers had turned a seven-point deficit into a seven-point lead.

It is Van Exel who starts it, and bloody elbows that finish it.

In the third quarter, they stretched the lead by outrebounding the SuperSonics, 17-11. By outhustling them with eight points off their turnovers. By playing Seattle-type defense, holding it to 23% shooting.

The fourth quarter was dominated by departing fans and a noticeable lack of that so-original Seattle chant, “Beat L.A.”

That, and the first glimpse of a championship-type Horry in a late drive and dunk that sent the Lakers’ benchwarmers into a dancing frenzy.

The question now is obvious.

How does Harris convince the Lakers to play like this every night?

Because what happened here Wednesday is not natural for a team of the best one-on-one players in the game.

What happened here took teamwork, quiet work, unsung work.

And Harris knows it.

“Rebounding and defense require a commitment daily,” Harris said. “You never just have it.”

He explained, “You might have a free throw, or a jump shot, or a dribble. But rebounding and defense require work every day, reminders every day, a constant commitment.”

For the most important night of their season Wednesday, they had it.

But what about Friday at the Forum? What about next week, when they must come back here to play at least one more game?

“We need to all stock up on our Advil or ginseng or whatever it is that is keeping us pumped up,” Van Exel said, smiling, offering the best plan of attack he could conjure.

This is why you wait.