Lakers Pound Out Win

You had pratfalls and carnival-style basketball tosses. (Step right up, folks: Hit the large man from across the court and win a quick trip to the showers!)

You had clowns and other silly-looking participants, who apparently weren’t in on the joke, probably too busy actually playing basketball.

You had an almost-brawl and finger-pointing and ejections and by the way, a theatrical 99-91 Laker victory over the New York Knicks on Sunday, before 17,505 under the big top, er, at the Great Western Forum.

Maybe the skirmishes and strange, stagy tension that burbled through this game would have alarmed the Lakers before they embraced this circus season.

But they have Dennis Rodman in the center ring now, and Sunday, that meant one big, comedic Rodman tussle with Knick forward Kurt Thomas, who was ejected for throwing Rodman to the floor after exchanging various tugs and elbows.

“He’s a dirty player,” said Knick Coach Jeff Van Gundy of Rodman, who had 12 rebounds and made five of six free throws. “I mean, he’s a great player, but he plays dirty. It always amazes me that he’s always the one involved, but it’s always the other players that get picked on.

“But again, he gets the biggest ovation coming out before the game. . . .”

Rodman riles them up and the rest of the Lakers swoop in for the kill.

“That was time to focus even more,” said Kobe Bryant, who led the Lakers with 29 points and five steals. “Because Dennis kept his cool.

“We could sense them getting a little bit more frustrated. So that’s when you calm down even more, and that’s when you pick them apart.”

Shaquille O’Neal joined the escapades in the fourth quarter by shoving aside Chris Dudley after an O’Neal power dunk.

That caused Dudley to grab the basketball and fire an impressive 50-foot strike off O’Neal’s backside, not exactly the outlet pass as it is diagramed in the textbooks but somehow fitting for this game.

Then Dudley was ejected.

Along the way, the Lakers (20-11) found a nice offensive rhythm among O’Neal, Bryant and Glen Rice (19 points on eight-of-14 shooting), faced down a physical Knick team hungry to finish a West Coast trip with a victory, and ended an embarrassing two-game home losing streak.

In this meeting of high-profile, low-chemistry teams, the Lakers turned out to be the cagier animal.

“You can’t get mad about that,” Coach Kurt Rambis said of the jabbering and jostling. “You put talented, competitive individuals in a situation where you’re telling one team to win over another one, you’ve got to be able to expect flare-ups like that to happen.”

Though the Knicks are hardly anyone’s version of a top offensive team, the Lakers did prevent the wild fastbreaking that had ruined them against Sacramento and Phoenix, and never let the Knicks take control of this game.

“We’ve been struggling here lately,” said Rice, who carried the Lakers through a tough time with an 11-point second quarter. “And we’ve come to realize that when we come together as a team on both ends of the floor, we’re a pretty dominant team.”

The Knicks did close the Laker lead to 78-75 with a little more than six minutes left in the game, but, emotionally and literally, the door was slammed shut when O’Neal slammed Dudley.

After O’Neal received his technical and Dudley was tossed, the Lakers put the game away, keyed by back-to-back three-pointers by Derek Harper.

“He looked like he was playing pretty good defense and guys just got frustrated,” O’Neal said of the Knick-Rodman controversies. “And [Thomas] threw him down. Dennis did a good job not reacting. I mean, I don’t think I would’ve reacted the same.

“He came out and played a very very good game. Got some rebounds, got a couple of people tossed out. It was a good game.”

TONIGHT

Vancouver

at Forum

7:30, FSW

*

NEW HOPE

Kurt Rambis is hopeful that from now on Dennis Rodman knows he is expected to exert some self-discipline. Page 7

BRIGHT LIGHT

Without much notice, Lamond Murray has put together a string of strong games for the Clippers.

Page 6

MAGIC FEAT

Orlando overcame a 24-point, 15-rebound effort by Alonzo Mourning to defeat Miami, 94-87.

Page 6