What’s in Laker Stars? Answers and Questions

The first option was unstoppable.

The second option went zinging back and forth between staggering play and stumbling on his way, alternately lighting up Staples Center and darkening Coach Phil Jackson’s mood.

The third option dropped off the face of the Laker planet for the last 17 minutes 18 seconds, and who knows what that means?

In a pulsating, strange, seesaw game, the Lakers slugged last and best, exploding past the Denver Nuggets, 106-98, with a fourth-quarter flurry that overcame a 17-point third-quarter deficit, pleased the sellout crowd and gave everybody plenty of choices.

Shaquille O’Neal was the model of consistency, scoring 35 points, grabbing 13 rebounds and dealing out eight assists.

Also nearly coming up with a triple-double was Kobe Bryant, who flashed and dashed for 29 points, with nine rebounds and 11 assists, but also was pulled for several minutes late in the game after his three-point barrage threatened to overwhelm both teams.

And Glen Rice was replaced by Rick Fox midway through the third quarter, and did not return.

Denver rose on the play of Antonio McDyess and Nick Van Exel to lead, 67-50, early in the third quarter, then fell back when neither could keep up the momentum in the face of the Lakers’ last charge.

The victory raised the Lakers’ record to 36-11, keeping them a half-game behind Portland for the best record in the league.

It was 79-71, a nice little basketball game, before some Laker long-distance dialing, and it almost didn’t matter what Denver did offensively during the onslaught.

The outbreak began with a Bryant bomb after a kick-back by O’Neal. O’Neal followed that with a basket. Bryant made another three, and then another, and the lead was only 87-84 with 7:23 left.

The Nuggets scored four baskets in that span, but by the time Fox swished in another three-pointer, the score was tied, 87-87, and Denver was calling time out at the 6:49 mark.

That was also when Jackson pulled Bryant, who right before the Fox basket had missed a particularly fast three-pointer of his own.

After his replacement, Brian Shaw, drove for a basket, the Lakers went ahead, 99-96, and Bryant returned to the game.

O’Neal finalized the victory by blocking Van Exel’s shot, leading to a foul of Bryant. His two free throws made it 103-98 with 1:23 left.

Jackson kept Bryant out for 4:05 of the final seven minutes of the game, and said that Bryant both understood the logic of the move and that Bryant generally played a wonderful game.

“You know, I vacillate between wanting to spank him and wanting to pat him on the back,” Jackson said with a smile after the game. “And sometimes it ends up about the middle . . .

Bryant added that he understood Jackson’s decision to pull him out for a while, saying that the quick shot was a “heat check,” and that he knew it was not the right shot to take.

And did he know that he was only one rebound away from the first triple- double of his career?

“If I knew,” Bryant said with a grin, “I would’ve bowled Rick over for that last rebound.”

Meanwhile, Jackson said he kept Fox in the game, over Rice, because in this game, the Lakers needed Fox’s defense and quickness--plus, Fox was making his shots, on his way to a 10-point, four-rebound game.

“Rick’s right now [making] a lot of good decisions, he’s shooting the ball, he’s hot, his defense has been solid,” Jackson said. “It just seemed like the right matchup.

“We had to get some defense out on the court, a little more quickness and strength.”

Rice, who was five for 12 on the night for 11 points and five rebounds in 25 minutes, apparently left the locker room after the game without speaking to the media.

From the outset of this game, Denver was aggressive and flying at the hoop--in direct contrast to the Lakers’ Jan. 10 pounding of the Nuggets.

In the last meeting, the Lakers led by 25 points after the first quarter and never looked back.

But since then, the Nuggets traded Ron Mercer and Chauncey Billups in exchange for Chris Gatling and Tariq Abdul-Wahad. Gatling and Abdul-Wahad came off the bench to help trigger a 37-point Nugget second quarter that pushed Denver to a 62-50 halftime lead.

The second-quarter outburst tied for the most points the Lakers have given up in a quarter this season.

“I think maybe we got their attention,” Jackson said of Denver before the game. “They’ve changed personnel, they’ve got three different players in their rotation.”