L.A. Romp and Circumstances

This is how the other 28 live.

They make do without the seven feet and 330 pounds of menace in the lane, because only one team gets Him. The ones that win do it because they play team defense and are gritty and are smart. The rest win because they play the Vancouver Grizzlies.

The Shaq-less Lakers were lucky enough to have both going for them Friday night at Staples Center, where they defeated the Grizzlies, 98-76, before 18,211.

It was the Lakers’ best defensive work of the season, and it helped calm the uncertainty of consecutive defeats and four losses in five games. Before they left today on a four-city trip that begins Sunday in Toronto and concludes Friday in Dallas, the Lakers appeared to reclaim some of their direction. Or they merely hammered a very bad team. Either way, they appeared to have fun, from the front of the rotation to the back of the bench.

“They really were,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “We tried to emphasize the fact that as much as we’ve gone through some duress here in the last week and a half, with losing back-to-back games--twice, that we’re still only a game and a half out of first place and nothing’s been lost as far as that goes. We just have to play from today on. That’s the way it is in this game.”

Though Kobe Bryant shot unevenly, or maybe because of it, the Lakers were as balanced offensively as they have been this season.

Horace Grant retook his game, matched his season high with 19 points and had 13 rebounds. Rick Fox had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Isaiah Rider scored 16 points in 24 minutes.

The bounce passes? That was ball movement.

The unfamiliar faces? That was a deeper rotation.

The jump shots? That was how the rest of the NBA scores, from 12 to 20 feet, shoulders squared, over zone defenses masked to look like something legal.

Shaquille O’Neal was in Baton Rouge, in cap and gown. His mortarboard was so large and high, in fact, that twice school officials had to wave off attempted landings on it by news choppers.

There won’t ever be a Patrick Ewing are-they-better-without-him debate here as there was in New York, but the Lakers appeared to enjoy the temporary challenge of playing without O’Neal. The lane was a little more airy. The offense went through not O’Neal, but Jackson’s stern direction.

“I’d rather have [Shaq] out there,” Grant said.

Of the team’s attitude coming off the losses, Grant said, “We were sort of worried, but we weren’t desperate.”

Defensively, the Lakers joined hands around Grizzly big men Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Bryant Reeves, forcing the Vancouver guards to push up shots from the perimeter. Michael Dickerson missed seven of his first nine shots and the Grizzlies made only 37.5% of their first-half attempts and 40% for the game. Their 76 points were a season low for a Laker opponent.

Despite predictions otherwise, Bryant ran the offense. He missed six of his first seven attempts and finished with nine points in the first half, when all 10 active, available Lakers made at least one field goal. Bryant finished with 17 points on seven-of-18 shooting.

“He didn’t have the kind of freedom,” Jackson said. “They were very dedicated to stopping Kobe tonight. They had someone on him, in his face or on his arm every shot he took. So it wasn’t his night tonight.”

Before the game, Jackson considered the dynamics of Bryant’s sense of duty and O’Neal’s absence and figured a lecture or two was in his immediate future.

“I think that he’s probably going to take on more that is necessary in this situation tonight,” Jackson said. “We’ll have to rein him in in the course of the game and let him know it’s going to take five men to beat this team, both on offense and defense.”

For example . . .

With not four seconds left in the first half, the Lakers had the ball out of bounds. Though Bryant was on the floor, the Lakers worked the ball to an open Mark Madsen, 18 feet from the basket. As the buzzer sounded, Madsen’s jumper fell, and the Lakers had a 48-37 lead.

As time ran out in the fourth quarter, Madsen made a three-pointer from the right corner. It was the first official three-pointer of his life--from high school to college to the NBA. The crowd cheered, the Lakers smiled and Madsen thrust a forefinger in the air.

Bryant, however, was not without his moments. Early in the fourth quarter, he stood at the top, near the arc, shivered his shoulders and took a jab step. Kevin Edwards, by definition guarding Bryant, lost complete control of his motor skills and just sat down. Bryant made the jumper.

Abdur-Rahim played in the middle of Ramadan, the Muslim period of heightened faith. Abdur-Rahim does not eat or drink from dawn until sundown. He scored 18 points in 33 minutes.

*

CLIPPERS 98

PHOENIX 88

The Clippers beat the Suns for the first time since March 18, 1997, as Jeff McInnis scored 21 of his 24 points in the second half. D6