It’s Time to Close the Deal

On Sunday, in Sacramento, the Lakers get their first chance to prove they have changed.

At this point they haven’t done anything more than they did in their first three seasons after Shaquille O’Neal arrived: Win their first two playoff games at home.

Sunday represents the opportunity to take the next step and assert themselves as championship material.

The last three times the Lakers have had a chance to sweep their first-round series they have failed, losing Game 3 twice at Portland and once at Houston.

If they want to live up to this year’s hype, they need to hurry up and close up like a cashier in the checkout line who can’t wait to go home.

Why should this year be any different than the past, when prolonged first rounds served as prologues of bad things to come?

“We’re more focused,” O’Neal said. “We’re on a mission. Everything’s put right in front of us, what we need to do, what we want to do. If you don’t do it, you won’t play.

“And of course, people believe in Phil’s philosophy. . . . All those balls up there, obviously he knows what he’s talking about.”

O’Neal turned his head in the direction of Coach Phil Jackson’s office, which overlooks the Lakers’ practice court and has three miniature versions of the Larry O’Brien trophy (a golden ball perched atop a net) sitting in the window.

They represent only half of the trophies Jackson won in Chicago, and they tell only half the story. One of the characteristics the Bulls picked up during their championship runs was a ruthless streak. They lived to see others die quickly.

Jackson’s Chicago teams went 10-2 when they had an opportunity to sweep.

It might not qualify him for membership in the janitors’ union, but if he has learned anything from his experiences, it’s that the close-out game is the most difficult to win.

“It has been, historically, for me, as far as a coach in the playoffs,” he said. “It’s been very difficult. There have been a couple of times that teams that have been undermanned or have been [in] disarray,” and still managed to put up a good fight.

Yet the Bulls managed to win 83% of the time.

It means beating a team that’s desperate to stay alive and will unleash everything it can to fight.

It means facing a team on its home court for the first time. And there might not be a more dramatic difference in venues than the palatial Staples Center and Arco Arena, which is practically a barn by today’s standards. Arco ranks among the loudest arenas in the league and helped the Kings to a 30-11 home record.

“The crowd is going to get their team stoked for the game,” Jackson said. “There’s no doubt about it. We have to just absorb that energy.”

It didn’t take long for Jackson to start talking like a Southern Californian. He has been here for less than a year, and over the course of two days he used “stoked,” “bogus” and a gratuitous “whatever” during interviews. His players, meanwhile, are starting to sound alike--and sound like him. It’s another sign they are taking his messages to heart.

“The one consistent thing to beating [the Kings] is not letting them get transition baskets, letting them get off to a good start,” Kobe Bryant said.

“It’s poise. It’s being patient with your offensive sets, taking time and not getting caught up in the officiating or the crowd.

“The close-out game, you really have to be focused. Because the team now, their back’s against the wall, they have nothing to lose, they can just come and play loose--which is the way they like to play anyway. They might go on a little run here and there. You just have to be patient and take it one possession at a time.”

Said O’Neal: “They’re going to be more intense, they’re going to be home. It’s key that we handle their surges, we handle their spurts.”

There’s a flip side to that dreadful statistic that O’Neal’s teams have been swept five times: His teams have swept only once, when his Orlando Magic took the Detroit Pistons in three games to start the 1996 playoffs.

That series was a perfect example of how difficult it can be to apply the final blow. The Magic beat Detroit by an average of 17.5 points in the first two games at Orlando but won by only three points in Game 3 at Detroit. But Orlando didn’t learn its lesson well enough, because the Magic missed a chance to sweep the Atlanta Hawks in the second round that season.

O’Neal keeps showing an increased level of dedication this season. And he keeps creating new nicknames. Get a sweep on Sunday, and he can call himself the Big Broomstick.

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

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Round One

How the Lakers have fared in first-round, best-of-five series:

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Year Opponent Result 1984 Kansas City Won 3-0 1985 Phoenix Won 3-0 1986 San Antonio Won 3-0 1987 Denver Won 3-0 1988 San Antonio Won 3-0 1989 Portland Won 3-0 1990 Houston Won 3-1 1991 Houston Won 3-0 1992 Portland Lost 3-1 1993 Phoenix Lost 3-2 1995 Seattle Won 3-1 1996 Houston Lost 3-1 1997 Portland Won 3-1 1998 Portland Won 3-1 1999 Houston Won 3-1

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