Lakers Own This Block

Shaquille O’Neal has a long reach, and with it he plucked back a Laker victory from the rim of defeat.

Quite emphatically. Extremely emphatically.

Game 1 was moving out of reach, quickly: A one-point Laker lead, a dwindling clock, a hurrying Houston Rocket guard, an open lane, a 335-pound center on the chase.

With a couple of quick slide steps, a lunge and a long, violent swing of his very long right arm, O’Neal blocked Cuttino Mobley’s layup as time expired, culminating a game full of mood swings and superstar drama.

The O’Neal swat--the biggest play of the Laker season--preserved a 101-100 victory on Sunday in front of 17,505 at the Great Western Forum and stretched the Laker victory march into the first game of the postseason.

At the tail end of a season in which Coach Kurt Rambis has preached about covering each others’ backs, how many Lakers’ backs did O’Neal cover with that block?

“Well, he covered mine--I know that,” Rambis said after the victory to open the best-of-five first-round Western Conference series. “He covered the entire team’s.”

Sure, the Lakers had all the glitzy pieces working--the 20-foot O’Neal lob pass to Kobe Bryant, the Glen Rice scoring machine, even Derek Fisher bombing from the outside for a season-high 20 points.

But, as the Rockets scrambled back from a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit on Charles Barkley’s massive shoulders and the contest evolved into a possession-by-possession slugfest, the Lakers pulled it out with some blue-collar workmanship.

O’Neal, not so famous for his defensive footwork or playoff pick-and-roll defense, said he knew the Rockets would run a pick and roll and see if they could spring somebody loose if O’Neal either over-committed or let the guard fly by.

Instead, O’Neal partially let Mobley scoot past, but left Hakeem Olajuwon and followed the guard, then swiped the ball away from behind--and celebrated the play by high-fiving several fans on the baseline as time expired.

“The rumor is I’m not a good pick-and-roll defender,” said O’Neal, who finished with 27 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots.

“It’s not that I’m not a good pick-and-roll defender. It’s [that] being a big man and being a shot-blocker, I’m just used to helping out the guards . . .

“I mean, I can play defense.”

Said Fisher, who was screened away from Mobley by Olajuwon on the play: “Shaq is our guy. He’s the captain of the ship. And he made the play. . . .

“He’s always getting ribbed about how he doesn’t move his feet, and how he doesn’t play pick-and-roll defense. And lo and behold, they run a pick and roll, Shaq moves his feet, and blocks the shot.

“So he was fired up.”

O’Neal’s block was not the only blue-collar play to pull out this game for the Lakers in the bristling fourth quarter.

Overall, Houston committed 14 turnovers, several in the final minutes.

Trailing, 100-98, with less than a minute left, after getting scorched for 16 second-half points by Barkley (he finished with 25 points) and some clutch shooting by Sam Mack (three three-pointers), the Lakers picked up their defense.

In order: The Lakers forced an Olajuwon miss, swiped the ball away from Scottie Pippen when Bryant stood his ground and Fisher dived for it, then watched the game come down to Mobley and O’Neal.

In between those defensive stops, the Lakers got one free throw from O’Neal and two from Bryant, who was fouled by Mack (as both men tripped) with 5.3 seconds to play.

“I was kind of upset,” said O’Neal, who made only five of 14 free throws. “I went to the line--I missed the first one, made the second one.

“And Kobe came up and gave us two. I was kind of upset at that point. I knew they were going to put us in a pick and roll and try to draw me and kick it to Hakeem.

“I told Derek that if they run the pick and roll he should stay with mine and I’ll stay with yours. . . . I kind of waited [till] the last second to go, because I knew he was going to come in.

“I kind of let him pass me, and I just came from the back.”

So, Game 1 was saved for the Lakers, with Game 2 at the Forum set for Tuesday night.

In this one, the Lakers wobbled a bit early, except for Rice, who made nine of 11 shots in the first half, on his way to a 29-point performance.

“Rice was phenomenal,” Houston Coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. “Whenever he had an opening, he stung us.”

Said Rice: “Guys were working extremely hard, setting screens for one another. When you have guys working that hard for you, you have to come off and hit your jump shot.”

With Rice making all six of his second-quarter shots, the Lakers went into hyper-speed in that period, scoring 37 points (to Houston’s 19) and racing to a 52-41 halftime lead.

As Barkley began to take over in the third quarter--drawing J.R. Reid and Robert Horry and smashing them both on the low post--Houston wound its way back into the game.

“We didn’t play the defense in the second half that we would’ve liked,” Rambis said. “Basically, when we stuck to our game plan, when we did what we wanted to do, good things happened.

“Whenever we varied from that or made mistakes, that’s what got us into trouble. We’re just going to have to reinforce that.”

Said Fisher: “We put ourselves in a tough position, squandering the lead, and then put ourselves in a position where we had to fight to get stops and make baskets pretty much every time.

“To get a stop for the win, it does make you feel good. But on the other hand, it was like, ‘Naw, we shouldn’t have been in that situation.’ ”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

BY THE NUMBERS

4: Blocked shots for Shaquille O’Neal, including final attempt of the game by Rocket guard Cuttino Mobley.

1.67: O’Neal’s average for blocked shots during the regular season.

14: Consecutive losses for Rockets in games televised by NBC.

11: Lakers’ largest lead

7: Rockets’ largest lead

9-12: Laker free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter (75%)

1-4: O’Neal’s free-throw shootin in the fourth quarter (25%)

5-14: O’Neal’s free-throw shooting in the game (35.7%)

20-5: Lakers’ record this season when scoring more than 100 points.

LAKERS vs. HOUSTON

Best-of-five series

GAME 1

Lakers 101, Rockets 100

GAME 2

Tuesday at Forum

7:30 p.m.

Fox Sports West, TNT

GAME 3

Thursday at Houston

6:30 p.m.

Channel 9, TNT

GAME 4*

May 15 at Houston

TBA, NBC

GAME 5*

May 17 at Forum

TBA

Fox Sports West

* if necessary

SCORE BY QUARTERS

*--*

L.A. Hou. First 15 22 Second 37 19 Third 25 29 Fourth 24 30 Final 101 100

*--*

HIGH SCORERS

Lakers: Glen Rice 29, Shaquille O’Neal 27, Derek Fisher 20

Houston: Charles Barkley 25, Hakeem Olajuwon 22

HIGH REBOUNDERS

Lakers: O’Neal 11

Houston: Barkley 10, Scottie Pippen 10

HIGH ASSISTS

Lakers: Fisher 6, Kobe Bryant 5

Houston: Pippen 8, Cuttino Mobley 6

ELSEWHERE

Philadelphia 104, Orlando 90

Allen Iverson overcomes jitters and scores 30 points in his first playoff game.

San Antonio 99, Minnesota 86

Tim Duncan scores 26 points and West’s top-seeded team pulls away in fourth quarter.

Indiana 110, Milwaukee 88

Jalen Rose leads Pacers with 24 points as East’s top-seeded team wins easily.

Coverage, Page 7