3-for-All Is Decided by Harper

By MARK HEISLER

March 6, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

OK, now they can sic their new pit bull on that Mailman.

The Lakers rolled on Friday night, surviving a furious fourth-quarter shootout with the Seattle SuperSonics before Derek Harper made a three-point shot with 37 seconds left to put them ahead to stay in a 103-100 victory.

That sent them into Sunday’s game in Utah on a six-game winning streak.

“Holy dawgie,” said the winning coach, Kurt Rambis, now 5-0.

The SuperSonics led, 94-90, with 2:51 left, but the Lakers tied the score on a Shaquille O’Neal dunk and a Harper breakaway.

After that, the hits just started happening:

1:26--Harper hits three-pointer. Lakers, 97-94.

1:16--Dale Ellis hits three-pointer. Tie, 97-97.

1:03--O’Neal hits eight-foot turnaround jumper. Lakers, 99-97.

:51--Ellis hits three-pointer. SuperSonics, 100-99.

:37--Harper hits three-pointer. Lakers, 102-100.

In all, the 37-year-old Harper scored 17 points, firing away as the SuperSonics collapsed back on O’Neal, who had 31 points of his own.

“You have to give up something,” Seattle Coach Paul Westphal said of O’Neal. “It’s not fair. He should be outlawed.

“I said to our coaches at halftime, what a weapon, when you throw it into that mountain and he’s got great hands and great skills.

“You can run a lot of plays when your X is twice as big as the other guys’ O. It makes your Xs and O’s pretty good.”

It was a wild game, featuring the first tepid performance by Dennis Rodman, who had averaged 13.5 rebounds in 28 minutes in his first four games. Friday night, the energizer turned into de-energizer, settling for six rebounds in 26 minutes, plus his first technical foul as a Laker.

The Lakers led anyway, 74-73, going into the fourth quarter, when Rambis decided to try Kobe Bryant on Gary Payton, in what you might call the Kid-Glove matchup. Thus challenged, Payton proceeded to go wild, scoring 15 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter, making his first six shots in the period, until Rambis went to Plan B, Harper.

“Payton’s amazing, isn’t he?” Rambis said later. “I was thinking he’d wear out and get tired. He just got better.”

The game was the second meeting of these rivals since last spring when the Lakers bombed the SuperSonics, 4-1, in the Western semifinals, with O’Neal particularly devastating, ending the George Karl era in Seattle.

Westphal, hired to replace him, views the enemy to the south with a healthy respect. After O’Neal insulted the Spurs in the preseason, and someone asked the new SuperSonic coach how he viewed the West, he replied:

“Let’s start with Shaq because we don’t want to make the Lakers think they are not getting their respect.”

The SuperSonics eased into a 10-6 lead early but then got careless, let their offense drift outside and saw the Lakers go on a 17-4 run, led by the other power forward, the starter no one much mentions any more, Travis Knight, who, in a rare departure from his usual foul trouble, put together a big first half of nine rebounds and eight points.

Then, with a 23-14 lead and 4:04 left in the first quarter, Rambis put in Rodman, but, unlike the other four games Rodman had played for the Lakers, nothing happened. He played six minutes, was called for two fouls and took his seat again, with the Seattle rally under way.

With Ellis knocking in four fast three-pointers and scoring 15 points, the SuperSonics caught the Lakers in the second quarter. Only a short jumper on a rebound by O’Neal in the final second gave the Lakers a 50-48 lead at halftime.

Rodman got back in for two more minutes late in the second period and took two rebounds before being called for his third foul by rookie referee Marc Davis.

Rodman protested to Davis. Then he complained to referee Scott Foster. Then, on his way back to the bench, he complained to the third member of the crew, Jack Nies, who called a technical foul on him.

The teams battled through a close third quarter and a closer fourth period.

After Harper’s basket made it 102-100, Payton faked O’Neal up, stepped under him . . . and missed an open five-footer.

The SuperSonics fouled O’Neal. He missed the first free throw but made the second, giving the Lakers a 103-100 lead with 18 seconds left.

Seattle had a last chance to tie and it was a real one, when the entire Laker defense followed Payton to the left side of the floor, and he threw the ball to Vin Baker, completely alone at the three-point line on the right side. But Baker’s shot fell short, grazing the rim and making him four for 20 from the field.

Hersey Hawkins also missed, and the streak lives.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

RODMAN FACTOR

How Dennis Rodman’s statistics compared to Vin Baker’s in Friday’s matchup between the Lakers and the SuperSonics:

MINUTES

Rodman: 26

Baker: 42

REBOUNDS

Rodman: 6

Baker: 6

POINTS

Rodman: 0