Worth Getting Jazzed About

Shaquille O’Neal did the locomotive thing inside again, Robert Horry continued his series-long outstanding play, the perimeter play remained great. Yada, yada, yada.

The Lakers finished off the Seattle SuperSonics, beating them, 110-95, Tuesday night at KeyArena and 4-1 in the Western Conference semifinals, winning two games here and four in a row in all.

It was as if this was the way they thought it would be all along, predictable in every way except that it was quick work.

The Lakers knew they had the talent to improve on last season’s finish, even during regular-season struggles, and now have a spot in the Western Conference finals for the first time since 1991, facing the Utah Jazz, the team that knocked them out in the second round a year ago, beginning Saturday afternoon in Salt Lake City.

The Lakers had figured they were better than the SuperSonics even after losing three of four in the regular season, complete with fourth-quarter falters.

The Lakers, at one time faced with the possibility of getting the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round, in many ways wanted to face the SuperSonics to prove a rightful place.

“We’ve always known we can beat this team,” Nick Van Exel said. “That’s what we had always said. But we had yet to prove it.

“Nobody believed us. We finally had to go out and beat this team. We did it when it counted.”

The game that counted the most, the clincher, may also be the one that counts last against George Karl, the Seattle coach on the hot seat, perhaps sent out with a final playoff flameout. Elimination came with the first four-game losing streak of his 6 1/2 years here and with his team getting controlled most every step of the way after winning the opener.

If this is the end, all the Lakers had a hand on the dagger. O’Neal had 31 points, nine rebounds and eight blocks, four in the final period as the SuperSonics tried to overcome an 18-point first-quarter deficit and got within seven points with 4:47 remaining. Horry contributed 13 points and 11 rebounds, the other starting forward, Rick Fox, 17 points and six rebounds while making five of eight three-pointers.

Van Exel hit four from behind the arc as the Lakers set a team playoff record with 13 three-point baskets. They shot 56.3% overall.

“They really, I think, reached their potential as a team against us this series,” Seattle’s Vin Baker said.

Fox was terrific in the first-round victory over Portland, averaging 16 points, five rebounds and 3.5 assists and shooting 52.2%, and then opened with another 14 points, 10 assists and three steals in the Game 1 loss to the SuperSonics. He could not figure out what happened from there, only that nothing was happening.

He went three for 13 from the field the next three outings with one steal, both dramatic drop-offs. By the time Game 5 began, Fox was down to 34.6% for the series. He was pretty close to out too.

“I joked that Seattle had done a great job of locking me up,” he said. “If I’ve got to be a decoy one more game, I can do that.”

Or maybe not.

The first three-point basket came a little less than two minutes in. Horry made one soon after, before Fox struck again . . . and again . . . and again. Three of them in one stretch of six trips downcourt, a run that also included a three-point play from O’Neal and gave the Lakers a 16-point lead with 3:50 still remaining in the quarter.

That gave Fox four for the period, one short of the league’s postseason record held by Horry, Gary Payton, Reggie Miller and Kenny Smith. Records are not kept for team shooting in a quarter, but the Lakers were at 78.9% overall.

The second period wasn’t much different in that regard--eight of 12, 66.7%--except that the SuperSonics joined in this time, using a 12-0 run to get back in the game at 44-41. They had the momentum, the crowd back in the game and the Lakers on their heels.

But Seattle never had anything but temporary control. When the Lakers came back with another run and another group of threes--Van Exel, Eddie Jones with 6-foot-10 Detlef Schrempf running at him--the cushion was back at 12 at halftime, 62-50. The visitors were still at an incredible 74.2% (23 of 31) and 80% (eight of 10) from behind the arc.

The SuperSonics were being methodically picked apart from the outside, the Lakers constantly beating defensive rotations to make open shots, after Karl had changed the opening lineup in hopes of getting some production at center.

Jim McIlvaine, a minor role player despite the title of starter, went out and Sam Perkins went in, and it made no difference.

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MORE COVERAGE

* J.A. ADANDE

The season-ending defeat was the first time the SuperSonics have lost four games in a row under George Karl. And probably the last. C4

* GAME REPORT: C5

* BIRD HONORED

He might have been only a raw rookie with the Indiana Pacers, but he was a runaway winner of the coach-of-the-year award. C4