Lakers Win on Heat Wave-Off

The Lakers call them progress, these rolling, turbulent road victories before surly crowds and let-it-all-out defenses and big-name coaches.

They call them just good enough, which is better than the alternative, which was four losses in five games before the wins came again.

Now, instead of spreading hope to the dreary basketball outposts of the continent, the Lakers simply win. As Miami Heat guard Eddie Jones so aptly put it Tuesday night, “There is no moral victory without a win.”

The Lakers defeated the Heat, 81-79, at American Airlines Arena. Tim Hardaway’s final shot was a little short and Brian Grant’s frantic follow was a little late, meaning the Lakers had their third consecutive victory and their second of the trip that has two games still to play.

Horace Grant made two late jumpers for the Lakers’ final four points and Shaquille O’Neal blocked a point-blank attempt by Brian Grant with four seconds left. The deflection landed near Hardaway, who rushed a 17-footer. The buzzer sounded before Grant gathered the ball and flicked it into the basket.

The referees waved it off immediately, and the Lakers had their sixth road win in 12 games, trying as it might have been. Two nights before, the Toronto Raptors took the Lakers into overtime before losing.

“Any time you win on the road it’s gratifying, regardless of how you get it done, and especially against a [Pat] Riley team,” said Laker forward Rick Fox, who made four of four three-point shots and scored 14 points. “Riley teams are stingy at home.”

Either the Lakers won with defense or the Heat lost with offense. It was hard to tell. But Ron Harper did most of the damage on Hardaway’s three-for-16 shooting debacle, which included one-for-nine three-point shooting, and Kobe Bryant tirelessly chased Jones, the former Laker who scored 14 points, four below his season average.

The Heat shot 40.5% from the field, and scored 12 points in the fourth quarter. The Lakers shot only 44.7%, and scored only 16 in the fourth quarter themselves. But, on consecutive possessions with about two minutes remaining, Horace Grant made a 16-footer and then an 18-footer, giving the Lakers their 81-76 lead.

In a season in which he has shot well below his career average, Grant called the baskets “heaven sent.”

More important, O’Neal brushed sweat from his brow, and Bryant went for 23 points. Bryant scratched his nose, and O’Neal went for 22.

Whatever the signal was for Horace Grant to make two late jumpers, that too was given. It’s getting hard to distinguish the gestures from the strategies anymore.

Brian Grant was assigned to O’Neal and gave up four inches and 85 pounds. O’Neal wasn’t on his game, not at all like he was Sunday in Toronto, when his legs had life and so did his jumper. He missed nine of 11 free-throw attempts, but took 14 rebounds. He then left without talking to the media, a rare snub.

Now that “one Western Conference player” is on to him, however, O’Neal did measure alternative methods to signal his teammates and push the offense.

It would explain why, on one second-quarter possession, O’Neal waved two orange flashlights to the left, and Harper answered discreetly with two flags overhead.

Suspiciously, Bryant never touched the basketball.

On the other hand, maybe people are reading into these things.

The Heat dabbled with a 100-point pace for a while, a veritable explosion of points for a team that averaged 87.8 on the way in. But the Lakers do that to teams and the Heat did, in fact, cool off.

And the Lakers cooled with them.

In fact, the Lakers strained to stay with Miami. Anthony Mason (20 points), Brian Grant (14) and, yes, A.C. Green scored easily.

The game turned typically on O’Neal and Bryant, with O’Neal leaning on Grant in the low post, looking for cutters or a way to the rim, or with Bryant out on the wing, nose to nose with Jones, looking for a step.

“They’re not going to allow Shaq to get six-foot shots and win the game here,” Coach Phil Jackson had said, despite the obvious mismatch at center, with Alonzo Mourning out for the season. “It’s pretty obvious this is a team that knows how to cover the injuries or the faults or the mismatches that they have. We’re going to have to do more than just throw the ball into Shaq and hope that he has a hot night.”

It worked again, by a breath.

“It’s coming,” Bryant said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE BREAKDOWN

LAKER RECORDS THIS SEASON:

vs. Eastern Conference 6-1

vs. Western Conference 12-8

Road games 6-6

At Staples Center* 12-3

vs. teams .500 or better 8-3

vs. sub-.500 teams 10-6

in October-November 11-5

in December 7-4

* includes game against Clippers at Staples Center that was technically a Clipper home game

*

COVERAGE

ROSTER MOVE: The Lakers activate rookie Medvedenko and put seldom-used George on the injured list because of sore throat and ear infection. Jackson and O’Neal vehemently deny hand-signal report. D7

NATIONAL ATTENTION: The Clippers hope for a dynamite effort when they make their first national TV appearance in three years tonight against Minnesota on TNT. D6