Last Hurrah for the Forum

A night after the Kings staged the first sporting event at Staples Center, the Lakers began their low-key, two-night farewell to the Great Western Forum with Thursday’s 93-89 overtime exhibition victory against the Golden State Warriors.

Tonight’s game against Phoenix will be the team’s last at the Forum, after 30-plus seasons and six championships. The Suns defeated Miami, 115-100, in the opener.

The Lakers won’t play a game at Staples until the second game of the regular season, Nov. 3, against the Vancouver Grizzlies. The Clippers open it for NBA play a day earlier.

A short Forum ceremony, plus a fan give-away, is planned for tonight.

“This is a special place,” Shaquille O’Neal said in the Laker locker room. “A lot of legends ran up this floor, a lot of legends dominated this floor.

“And we’re going to miss it. But times do change and I’m glad I’m going to have the opportunity to be on the team that’s going to open the Staples Center.”

Coach Phil Jackson, even though he has been a Laker for only four months, has a long history with the Forum, including winning the first of his six championships as coach of the Chicago Bulls on the Forum floor in 1991.

“I just want to say that it’s unique for us to be able to play on this floor,” Jackson said. “The Forum’s being closed in such a strange way, an exhibition after as many championships that have been played here.

“Personally, I was involved in four of them on this court. I feel this is a building that I’ve had a lot of fun in, a lot of success in. . . . Three of those four championship attempts were successful for the teams I was on, but none of them were Lakers.”

Jackson said that the move from Forum to the larger Staples Center will affect play. Jackson went through a similar move as coach of the Bulls, when the team moved from Chicago Stadium to the United Center.

“I know what it’s going to be like to play there,” Jackson said. “This is probably as big, not quite as big as the United Center. The Staples Center is a massive cavern. And to play inside of a place like this is a big change for players that are used to compact courts.

“There’s going to be things that will be great advantages, but it’s going to take us a while to get used to it too.”

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In the game, O’Neal made a free throw (after missing his first 10 tries) to tie the score, 85-85 with 1.6 seconds left in regulation and send the Lakers and Warriors into overtime.

It took some blue-collar work by A.C. Green (seven rebounds) and Robert Horry (six rebounds) and drives to the basket by Devean George to help the Lakers rally from a double-digit third-quarter deficit.

After a tight fourth quarter, it came down to Jackson instructing his team to get the ball to O’Neal, who had missed 17 of his previous 18 tries over the last two exhibition games.

Down by one, O’Neal missed the first shot badly, then Jackson called a 20-second timeout.

After that, O’Neal swished the second free throw.

O’Neal led all scorers with 21 points.

Tipoff for tonight’s game against Phoenix is 7:45.