Lakers Turn the Tied

By SCOTT HOWARD-COOPER

May 7, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SEATTLE —

George Karl, the apron he brought to KeyArena having remained in the garment bag, was forced to endure this one without benefit of a cover, not even for his eyes.

His running banter with Shaquille O’Neal was replaced Wednesday night by an actual feud against all the Lakers, who crushed Karl’s Seattle SuperSonics, 92-68, to tie the Western Conference semifinals at 1-1 and take homecourt advantage as the best-of-seven series moves to the Great Western Forum for games Friday and Sunday.

O’Neal had called Karl a crybaby, but whatever tears came to Karl on this night were well earned, so dominated was his team while shooting 32.9% and setting a Laker playoff opponent for the fewest points in a game, breaking the mark of 70 by the Golden State Warriors on April 21, 1973. Vin Baker was the SuperSonics’ leading scorer--at 13 points.

O’Neal got to jab again--26 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks--but this time got major support, even as Kobe Bryant sat out with flu. Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel both emerged from slumps to score 23 and 16 points, respectively. The other Lakers emerged from the rebounding dump, the poor showing in Game 1, to easily win the battle of the boards, 62-43, as Robert Horry also had 10 rebounds, along with nine points and three steals, and Corie Blount contributed eight off the bench in 16 minutes.

Bryant had practiced the day before, giving no indication of impending problems, but he started to feel bad by that night, and worse by Wednesday morning. He skipped the shootaround and stayed in his hotel room in an attempt to fight off the illness, and kept trying until the final minutes before tipoff.

Sitting at his locker, he had the look of a flu-ridden man. At least until he covered his head with a white towel, at which point he had the look of an anonymous man with no chance of playing. Likewise when he went in the trainer’s room and, flat on his stomach, tried the cocoon theory in there.

“You know he would play if he could possibly play at all,” Laker Coach Del Harris said. “If the decision were left up to him, I could tell you we couldn’t keep him out of the game. But that’s why we have medical people.”

Bryant had no energy and would not only have risked being ineffective, but of pushing himself to the point that he wouldn’t be ready for Game 3 at the Great Western Forum. And then there was the other risk.

The Lakers as a whole.

The possibility of flu sweeping the team in the middle of the playoffs immediately became a concern. They considered sending Bryant back to the hotel for the game so he could rest some more, and so he could be isolated more, but opted to let him stay in the locker room.

The plan was to keep their mouths closed and their fingers crossed, hoping it would become a 24-hour, and one-player, bug. Bryant coming out for the second half, however, was definitely not part of the plan, even if this was low key as far as dramatic entrances go, taking two jumpers in the final moments of warmups and then sitting on the bench with mostly a blank expression.

Any boost would have to come as an intangible, for, just as he sat in another room as the Lakers overcame a seven-point deficit in the first quarter and then built a 44-37 advantage at halftime, Bryant could only sit through the third quarter on the bench. That’s as they increased the cushion to 64-49 heading into the final period.

“Another little adjustment to make,” is how Harris, by now well tested in the Lakers’ being forced to play short-handed, termed the predicament. “We’ve had that from time to time. We’ve done that before. We know what that means. The proverbial somebody’s got to step up.”

Van Exel stepped up. He came in shooting 32.1% overall and 27.3% on three-pointers the first five games of the playoffs, then had 11 points and five assists before intermission, a key to the first-half lead. He was four of nine in that time, with two of the makes coming behind the arc, and provided the first glimpse as to how the Lakers would counter the loss of Bryant: Harris played Van Exel and Derek Fisher together for one of the few times in the last two seasons.

Jones stepped up. At 35.9% before Wednesday, he was only slightly better than Van Exel. Jones’ response for Game 2 was to make three of his first five attempts, including one three-pointer.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

BY THE NUMBERS

68: Fewest points allowed in a playoff game in Lakers history.

84%: Lakers, the worst free throw shooting team in the NBA, made 21 of 25 attempts.

62-43: Laker advantage in rebounding, after being outrebounded by 10 in Game 1.

23: Points for Eddie Jones, a career playoff high.

13: Number of field goals for Seattle in final 36 minutes of the game.

7:55: Span at end of third quarter in which Seattle did not make a field goal.

11: Total points for Seattle’s Detlef Schrempf and Hersey Hawkins, who combined for 39 in Game 1.

Low and Behold

Fewest points allowed by Lakers in the playoffs since moving to Los Angeles:

May 6, 1998