Bryant Wins Star Search

As it turned out, Kobe Bryant would win no matter what.

Forget the 40 points he racked Sunday afternoon, most of them against Vince Carter, who might someday be the next Kobe Bryant, if he plays that long.

Forget the frantic final quarter, when Carter’s team, the Toronto Raptors, nearly came from Saskatchewan to beat the Lakers.

“At the ends of our careers it’s not going to matter who scores the most points,” Bryant said. “All that’s going to matter is who wins the most championships.”

It was an easier observation from the Laker locker room. They stumbled into overtime and still beat the Raptors, 104-101, at Air Canada Centre. Carter scored 31 points, but missed 22 of 32 shots on his way. Bryant made 14 of 29 attempts and each of his 11 free throws.

Before Alex Trebek and thousands of other delirious Canadians, the Lakers blew a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter, trudged into overtime and then scored nearly as many points in the five-minute extra period (13) as they did in the fourth (15).

Back from his weekend in the Bayou, Shaquille O’Neal missed three free throws in the final two minutes of regulation, both in the overtime and, in all, his last seven--after making the first four.

O’Neal had plenty of legs upon his return, in part because foul trouble had him on the bench for all but 10 minutes of the first half. Appearing very spry, he made 12 of 17 field goals. He nearly lost the game at the line, however. Raptor Coach Lenny Wilkens had Shaq hacked late in the fourth, and the crowd could barely contain itself as O’Neal missed.

“I don’t have any excuses for missing,” he said. “They looked good. They just didn’t go in.”

Clinging desperately to Bryant and O’Neal in the fourth quarter--they scored every point--the mercurial Lakers ultimately were saved by Robert Horry. While Bryant and Carter did their things, sometimes against each other, and while O’Neal found his jump hook quite accurate, Horry was, uh, pacing himself. He didn’t have a point in regulation, then scored six in the overtime, four on driving layups after Raptor center Antonio Davis fouled out.

“He does that,” Bryant said. “He saves his legs for the right time.”

With Toronto bunched around O’Neal and Bryant, Horry simply went to the basket.

“It just happens that way,” Horry said.

The Lakers made five of their final six free throws, all in the last 34 seconds of overtime, two by Horry, two by Bryant and one by Brian Shaw, who played 25 minutes.

That it came to that at all had the Lakers shaking their heads.

“You’re always looking for a knockout punch,” Horry said. “People think the jumper will be the knockout punch. That’s not always the case.”

The Lakers missed all six of their three-point attempts in the fourth quarter.

The Raptors scored 17 of regulation’s final 19 points to come from 89-74 down to the 91-91 tie in about five minutes. They limited the Lakers to one field goal in their final nine attempts. Most weren’t particularly good attempts, and the offense-driven Lakers scored only those 15 fourth-quarter points.

Just before the regulation buzzer, Bryant had a 25-foot attempt blocked by Carter. Somehow, with more than four seconds left, it was all the Lakers could get. Toward the end of overtime, with the Lakers ahead, 103-101, Bryant blocked an attempt by Carter.

“I owed him one,” Bryant said.

Carter, on his bum left knee, stayed with Bryant in the first half, particularly in the second quarter, when they guarded each other much of the time. They arrived at halftime with similar numbers, Bryant with 21 points in 13 shots and Carter with 22 in 13.

Carter, however, slowed considerably in the third. He pulled up on the outside rather than push to the rim, though Ron Harper overplayed his jump shot. As a result, Carter missed seven of eight shots in the quarter and the Lakers turned a 57-56 lead into a 76-62 lead, a 19-6 run during which Carter took one shot and had it blocked by Bryant.

When Carter missed a shot from near the Laker bench in the fourth quarter, he pulled out his mouthpiece, looked directly at Phil Jackson and shouted, “Stop crying!”

Apparently he believed Jackson was a little hard on the referees.

Raptor forward Charles Oakley managed to go an entire day without slugging a basketball player from Los Angeles. He did hammer Bryant pretty well under the basket late in the second quarter, however, then peered over his shoulder as if to say, “So what are you going to do about it?”

Bryant smiled back and made his two free throws.

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Bryant vs. Carter

A comparison of Sunday’s performances by Kobe Bryant and Toronto’s Vince Carter, above:

BRYANT CARTER

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14-29 Field goals 10-32 11-11 Free throws 6-7 7 Rebounds 12 40 Points 31 4 Assists 6 3 Blocked shots 2 2 Turnovers 1 1-5 Three-pointers 5-12

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