Lakers Give Themselves a High Five

The Laker house party blared Wednesday, and this time there was a rock ‘n’ roll thump to the revelry.

The music got louder, the mood got brighter, the quality of play rose higher and maybe everybody involved will be a little late to work this morning.

And maybe everybody will be excused.

Down by as many as 13 points in the first half, the Lakers thundered to their fifth consecutive victory, 101-95, over the Phoenix Suns before 17,505 at the Great Western Forum.

“If we look at it honestly, we’re still not playing great basketball,” Fox said. “But great teams find ways to win games. I’m not saying we’re a great team, but we’re a good team that, even if everything’s not all there, we can grind it out.”

This was a comeback victory that touched all of the high points of this winning streak: Kobe Bryant ignited it, Fox kept it going, Shaquille O’Neal and Dennis Rodman were constant producers, and the suddenly serious Laker defense closed it out down the back stretch.

Rodman even made back-to-back free throws to protect the late Laker lead and Bryant finished the scoring with a flying reverse slam.

Bryant scored a season-high 32 points--23 in the second half, 11 in a third-quarter burst--and added five assists. Rodman led the Lakers with 17 rebounds--he has led the Lakers in rebounding in all four of his games.

Bryant, who had a career-high four blocked shots, conceded that he was motivated by some personal issues--getting at the Suns for going at him in the post, and for telling him that he was too little to defend their forwards.

“They were smiling at me, and I saw them giggling on the bench--yeah, I don’t like that, man,” Bryant said. “I don’t appreciate things like that. You can get too hyped up, but really, it’s good. I like it--it’s a challenge.”

Bryant said his third-quarter spurt was all about taking what had been there for him in both this game and Monday’s victory over Phoenix, when he struggled offensively.

“I knew there were going to be openings for me, and I just had to be aggressive,” Bryant said. “I saw them again and took them.”

O’Neal scored 27 points and had nine rebounds and the Laker defense that snapped to life after getting shredded in the first quarter.

Perimeter-oriented Phoenix made 15 of 21 shots in a scintillating 34-point first quarter--but made only 22 of its next 70 shots, and ended up shooting at only a 40.7% clip.

Bryant, whose shooting woes continued through the first half Wednesday, kick-started the Lakers in the third.

Diving at the hoop and falling away from the defense, Bryant scored all of the Lakers’ points during an 11-2 eruption midway through the third quarter that turned a six-point Phoenix lead into a 68-65 lead.

Early in the third, Bryant converted a reverse layup on a fastbreak, was fouled on the next possession and made both free throws, made a layup from an assist by O’Neal, beat his defender for a dunk plus a foul and made a fall-away jumper at the 3:55 mark.

Four-for-four shooting, 11 points, about four minutes, deficit turned into the lead.

Fox took the baton from there, making back-to-back three-pointers in the fourth quarter, giving the Lakers an 81-78 lead with 8:03 left.

And the whole second half was a Laker defensive marvel--Phoenix made only four of its 19 three-point attempts in the game, and two of 17 from the second quarter on.

The Suns came out firing, making better than 70% of their shots in the first quarter, and rolling off to a 34-25 lead.

Despite Rodman grabbing seven rebounds--five of them on the offensive side--in the first, Rex Chapman and George McCloud helped the Suns control the quarter.

But, after seeing the Suns pull 12 points ahead early in the second, O’Neal scored six consecutive points to trigger a 10-0 Laker rally.

Laker Coach Kurt Rambis said the twin comeback victories--this one and in Phoenix on Monday--were triggered by relentless Laker defense.

“That’s why we want to play 48 minutes of good defense,” Rambis said. “When you do that, you’ll wear a team down, their legs start to get tired and their shots start not to fall and you can run on them.”