Rice Gives Lakers a Shot in the Arm

Get open. Get the ball. Shoot it.

The Lakers’ triple-option offense got a lot simpler in the clutch stages here Tuesday night at the Target Center, sliced down to one red-hot marksman, a few screeners, and a large fellow in the middle drawing all the attention and barking all the orders.

“Get open!” Shaquille O’Neal kept telling Glen Rice in the fourth quarter. “Hey, get open!”

So what did Rice do? He got open. He got the ball. He shot it.

And, in large part, that’s how the Lakers beat the tired but testy Minnesota Timberwolves, 107-101, infused and enthused by Rice’s jolting eight-point burst in a 100-second, fourth-quarter stretch.

“I’ve known all about him,” said forward J.R. Reid, who also came to the Lakers from Charlotte in the deal. “These guys don’t know anything about him.

“So when he went on his little tear, I was telling them, ‘That’s what we’ve been waiting for, right there. That’s why we’re here in L.A.’

“It didn’t take him but a few games to get in shape, get his game legs. There’s going to be a whole lot of good shooting coming out of him. I knew it was coming, just a matter of time.”

Rice, whose legs and shooting touch had been wobbly since he was traded to the Lakers last week, asked for and got his first start as a Laker, then went ahead and finished it with flair.

The burst began with 5:12 left in the game, and the Lakers trailing, 90-87, to a Timberwolves team completing a five-games-in-six-nights series.

O’Neal (24 points, eight rebounds and four assists) dumped it out to Rice, standing at the top of the three-point arc, and the ball ripped through the net, tie score.

Rice missed a three-point try on the next possession, but Travis Knight got the offensive rebound, fed a pass back to Rice, who leaned into the lane to tie it again.

After Kevin Garnett and Derek Harper exchanged three-point baskets, Rice put the Lakers ahead for good, swishing home a 24-foot shot.

“I said, ‘I need a couple threes from you right now,’ ” O’Neal said when he was asked what he told Rice at the beginning of the fourth. “He said, ‘OK, just kick it out to me.’

“I think he’s starting to get in a little bit better shape, he’s starting to get his legs under him. He’s getting comfortable with us, we’re getting comfortable with him.

“He’s a deadly shooter.”

From there, Kobe Bryant (21 points, nine rebounds and no turnovers) cemented it with a whirling, zig-zag drive and layup, a back-breaking three-point basket of his own, on an assist from Rice, and two free throws, giving him 11 points in the final quarter.

For Rice, who sat out the first month of the season after undergoing elbow surgery and did not suit up until his first game as a Laker last week, the fourth-quarter firestorm was a long time coming.

“I knew when my legs got stronger, the shot was going to go in,” said Rice, who finished with 22 points on eight-of-17 shooting (four of 10 on three-point shots).

“I just had to maintain my concentration, stay focused, and keep shooting the shot. I’ve always known I’m capable of hitting it. It’s been a while since I’ve played basketball in the manner it’s supposed to be played.

“I knew it was just a matter of time, getting my legs stronger.”

In the big fourth quarter, the Lakers outscored Minnesota, 32-23, as Garnett (21 points) and Joe Smith (22 points) faded down the stretch for the Timberwolves’ third consecutive loss.

After losing Sunday in Sacramento, the victory gave the Lakers (17-7) a 1-1 mark a third of the way through this six-game trip.

Said Coach Kurt Rambis, who put Rice into the starting lineup when the small forward said he’d feel more comfortable there: “You could sense it, you could feel it. . . .

“His confidence is there, his timing is getting there, he’s starting to understand how we play the game, how we play the Laker game. He’s finding his little spots to get open and because he’s getting his legs he’s going to start making his shots.”