Lakers Show Off Their Versatility

By J.A. ADANDE

April 28, 2000 12 AM PT

One thing we’re learning about the Lakers is they are versatile. The Big Swiss Army knife, as Shaquille O’Neal might say.

What else do you call it when a team’s 7-foot-1 center can knock people around inside and then bring the ball up court and throw an alley-oop pass to Kobe Bryant on the fly?

They can play big or small, keep pace at any tempo.

They can use the Shaq blade to pierce the Sacramento Kings for 46 points Sunday, then unfold their Kobe scissors and watch him cut up the Kings for 32 points in a 113-89 victory Thursday night--a night when the Kings swarmed O’Neal and he reached double figures in rebounds before he reached double figures in points.

The Lakers must be versatile to be up two games to none, because on one level the Kings are winning this series.

It’s a fast-paced, high-scoring series the Kings want, and a fast-paced, high-scoring series they’ve got.

“This is a team that likes to play offense, we are a team that’s been a good defensive team and hasn’t found a defensive answer for Sacramento,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “So we’ve gone offensive mostly and outscored them.”

But there’s one thing the Lakers can do that the Kings can’t, and that’s lock teams up for a while. So after the Lakers exploded for a 35-point first quarter, they survived a stretch of only two field goals in more than six minutes of the second quarter because they handled the Kings on defense. Sacramento made only 26% of its shots in the quarter and trailed by 15 points at halftime.

The Lakers got the best of both worlds: scoring more than 100 points, keeping the Kings below 90.

“Balance-wise, this represented the game we wanted to play,” Jackson said.

The more you see the Kings, the more you realize they are like the Sharper Image catalog: fun to look at, with lots of cool stuff, but ultimately not very useful.

It’s really too bad, because they play such an entertaining style of ball. But unless they start winning playoff series, no one else is going to copy it.

They need a steady post game, a better defensive attitude, a plan of attack.

In conversations with everyone from John Thompson to Magic Johnson before Game 2, one theme kept emerging: Everyone likes the Kings, but sooner or later they must get it.

“Understanding the game has to come now,” Johnson said. “‘OK, we played this way first quarter, we can’t take the same shots in the second and third quarter. You’ve got to remember, the game is a game of flow.

“If everything is flowing, [and here he started moving his body and arms, kind of like the dancing gopher in ‘Caddyshack’] and we’re shooting and we’re knocking down the shots, OK, we can continue that flow. But normally in the second half, a good team like the Lakers or whoever can cut your flow off. Now you have to understand that if I take quick shots, or I take bad shots, they’re going to capitalize.”

The Kings aren’t patient enough to wait for the best shot, or persistent enough to stick with something that works. They started off by going right at O’Neal with Vlade Divac, knowing O’Neal could not afford to get into early foul trouble.

It helped them take a 6-3 lead, and then they tossed the plan away like a rotten apple.

Slim Shady, a.k.a. Jason Williams, was at his most effective when he drove to the basket. He even drew O’Neal’s second foul in the first quarter. But we didn’t see much of that attack in the second half, either.

Fun while it lasted, though. And the Staples Center crowd certainly appreciated the fast-paced game.

When he coached in the Eastern Conference, Jackson used to cringe at the high scores coming in from the Western Conference playoff games.

Now that he’s in the West, with his Lakers posting the highest scores of any playoff team, he looks to the East and says with a sarcastic grin: “Those guys can’t score out there? What’s the deal?”

Actually, as Jackson quickly pointed out, no series has been as hard on the eyes as San Antonio-Phoenix, in which only one team broke 80 points through the first two games. The Kings are the antidote.

“It’s what the NBA wants,” Jackson said.

It sure beats the other extreme.

Jackson used Wednesday’s Knick-Raptor game, which featured several isolation plays for Latrell Sprewell and Vince Carter, as an example.

“You watched the Knick game [Wednesday] night,” Jackson said. “All they did was the same thing over and over for those two guys [Latrell Sprewell and Patrick Ewing].

“Nobody else is playing but those two guys,” he said. “One guy’s on one side of the floor, four guys on the other side of the floor. They try and expose one guy against the other and create a foul situation for the referees. It’s just a bogus game. Whatever. They’re doing their best to get the score.

“That’s what [that style of] game boils down to; it’s not team movement, it’s not player movement, it’s isolations, and individualizations so the referees can make the foul calls.”

Jackson would prefer something in the middle, a measured passing game that utilizes both the clock and every player on the floor.

But it’s hard not to become entrapped in the Kings’ style. It’s addictive, like potato chips or that solitaire game on Microsoft Windows.

The Lakers fell victim in the first half and committed consecutive turnovers on attempted alley-oops.

At one point in the fourth quarter, when the Lakers were content to milk the clock and protect their lead, the fans started yelling at the Lakers to shoot--with 16 seconds remaining on the shot clock.

Sixteen seconds left would constitute a long possession for the Kings, which is why this series will end sooner, rather than later.

Oh well. That just means plenty more time to play solitaire.

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

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

SCORING BREAKDOWN

Game 2: Lakers 113, Sacramento 89

STARTERS VS. BENCH

LAKERS

Bench: 28

Starters: 85

KINGS

Bench: 32