Lakers Show What Playoffs All About

With all of the expectations placed on them by everyone from the Las Vegas oddsmakers to their hometown fans, with Portland and New York eking out victories on their home courts and San Antonio going down in the Alamodome, this was just what the Lakers needed.

They needed a final minute that included featured fans heading for the exits and Shaquille O’Neal heading to the sideline and a congratulatory handshake from Coach Phil Jackson, not a finish filled with pressure-packed free throws.

They needed a 10-point victory despite allowing the last four points of the game. They needed a Chick Hearn refrigerator special.

They needed to produce some evidence to the Sacramento Kings that a Lakers victory in this series is as inevitable as O’Neal’s name being engraved on the most valuable player trophy.

If the Lakers messed around, if they let Sacramento drag this thing out until the very last possession, the Kings could take plenty of positives back home with them.

As in: Well, we almost won even though (A) O’Neal scored 46 points, a total he has matched only one other time in 67 playoff games and (B) Chris Webber played only 27 minutes and fouled out midway through the fourth quarter.

So that 117-107 score gave the Lakers more than a 1-0 lead in this best-of-five series. It gave them the mental edge. A little affirmation of their own status, a little doubt in the heads of the Kings.

“That was very important,” said Laker forward Glen Rice. “That’s why we wanted to come out and execute on both ends of the floor, be aggressive from the jump and see if we could get them shook up a little bit.”

Despite entering the playoffs as a No. 8 seed against a team with the best record in the NBA, the Kings felt pretty good about their chances. And with good reason.

They gave the Lakers all they could handle in their four games this season, winning one and holding double-digit leads even in the three losses.

They’re explosive, and they’re the one team that consistently dictated the pace of games to the Lakers, instead of the other way around. They actually wanted to play the Lakers, especially in a short series where crazy things can happen.

But they found out Sunday, “The playoffs is a different story,” as Kobe Bryant said. “We really had a lot of time and preparation for them.”

Preparation time means you’re pitting Jackson against King Coach Rick Adelman. That’s an even bigger mismatch than O’Neal against Scot Pollard in the low post.

We’ve already seen what happens when you give the Lakers practice time plus game tapes. The Kings actually had a good defensive scheme against O’Neal the first time the two teams met on Dec. 8, and he scored a modest 27 points. Of course, that was their initial meeting and the Lakers had played the night before.

Since then, O’Neal has scored 39, 34, 41 and now 46 points.

Looks like the Lakers figured something out. And now they have three more days to grease whatever kinks remain before Game 2.

The following is for those of you just tuning into the NBA now that the playoffs have begun: O’Neal is having a pretty good season.

He has been so superior in so many areas that the only thing surprising about his numbers (including 17 rebounds and five blocked shots) was that he didn’t have more than one assist.

After missing six of his first 10 shots, he made 17 of his final 23 (74%).

At one point in the second quarter he even banked in a shot while he was twisting halfway toward the basket and his shoe was coming off.

(In one of his few moments of inaccuracy, he ran down the court holding the shoe in his hand, then tossed it over toward Jack Nicholson. “I tried to hit him in the head,” O’Neal said. He missed, music mogul Lou Adler caught it and threw it back when play stopped.)

You can count on O’Neal’s shooting percentage climbing above .500 as the game progresses and the Kings eventually cooling off after one of their hot streaks. That’s why the Lakers didn’t panic when the Kings made their first eight shots (including a pair of free throws) at the start of the game.

“The regular season, they always came back to reality,” Laker forward A.C. Green said. “That’s one of the things we have to just sort of keep in mind. But at the same time, the regular season, they always controlled the momentum . . .

“Today, the difference was, we just didn’t allow the full-court game to go uncontested. That’s the main thing. We were able to control the tempo for the most part.”

The Lakers received practically ideal contributions from Bryant (23 points, seven rebounds, five assists) and Rice (18 points, seven rebounds, four assists). They had a nice stretch of minutes with Brian Shaw and Derek Fisher in the backcourt. While they might not have won with ease, they won convincingly.

“We’d all like to do that,” Jackson said. “You win games you win, regardless of domination. You feel like the important thing is the win. You get the first one down, you can kind of relax into the playoffs and go from there.”

Relax into the playoffs. There’s a phrase you don’t hear often. But it’s a perfect description. If they stumbled out of the gate all of the “Lakers tank in the postseason” stories would surfaced.

Now they don’t have to fight their own burdens. They can concentrate on the Kings, an opponent they look well equipped to handle.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com