Streak Is Not Indy-structible

For 38 days, 16 games and three quarters, there was no answer, only a Laker victory parade and a list of losing teams left behind.

What does it take to beat them? Since Dec. 6, nobody knew, and the Lakers refused to even consider the question.

The Laker winning streak outlasted Bill Gates, Y2K and several New York Jet head coaches, and bewildered great teams, good teams and the Clippers.

And Friday, in a fourth-quarter frenzy, it ended. Someone finally came up with an answer, though it presumably will be difficult to duplicate.

On a cold night in Indiana, before a thunderous sellout crowd at Conseco Fieldhouse and against an Indiana Pacer team that turned up the pressure and made every important shot, the Lakers lost, 111-102, ending their 16-game winning streak.

“Good things,” Coach Phil Jackson said of the streak, which ended tied as the franchise’s second-best, still one of the eight best in NBA history and the longest in four NBA seasons, “come to an end.”

Said Kobe Bryant of seeing the streak silenced: “Of course it bothers me. You don’t want to lose for the remainder of the season. It’ll always bother you when you lose. But that’s fine, we’ll start another streak.”

It can start tonight, when the Lakers move on to play the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“We definitely can’t look at this as devastating or something that is going to knock us off of our path,” guard Derek Fisher said. “You know, we lost the game, we had won 16 in a row.

“So we have to move on, but we also have to look at the things that we made mistakes in and correct those.”

After 16 games, this is what it took to beat the Lakers: precision half-court offense by a savvy, veteran Pacer team, huge bench performances from Travis Best and Austin Croshere, tricky defensive play, some shaky shooting by Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant and, ultimately, a final-period Laker unraveling.

It was Indiana’s 11th consecutive victory at home, and raised the Pacers’ Eastern Conference-best record to 24-11.

The Lakers (31-6) hadn’t lost since an early December trip to Sacramento, and had lost only once in their last 24 games.

“I kind of have to take responsibility for this loss,” said O’Neal, who is featured on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated. He made only 10 of his 25 field-goal tries Friday, for 22 points. “I never usually miss 15 shots. It must be the Sports Illustrated jinx or something. . . .

“Those are shots that I usually make, those are shots I have to make, especially down the stretch. . . . But I’ll be back [today at Minnesota], I guarantee it.”

After three quarters of a back-and-forth game, the Lakers began the fourth quarter with a 77-75 lead--which, through this streak, usually meant that they were about to click into killer-mode and a victory was about to be finalized.

A few minutes later, after a Bryant drive, the Lakers had a five-point lead, and only nine more minutes to go to reach 17 in a row.

And then Indiana finally burst the Laker dam, getting a combined 22 fourth-quarter points from Croshere and Best, which helped Indiana outscore the Lakers, 36-25, in a very loose Laker period.

Glen Rice scored 11 of his game-high 23 points in the fourth, but it was not enough.

“I think we had a really good game,” Jackson said. “[The Pacers] played about as well as I’ve seen them play this year. . . . We didn’t respond well down the stretch. I think we made some mistakes.”

Said Rice: “Defensively, I think we’re very disappointed, because normally down the stretch, we stop teams. And tonight, against an experienced team such as Indiana . . . they just had our number.”

Bryant, who made only seven of 19 shots, was two for six in the last quarter and committed two turnovers.

“I didn’t think Kobe played a real heady game tonight,” Jackson said. “And there’s a lot he has to learn experience-wise in this kind of an offense, just how to use it.”

Said Bryant: “Just missed shots. I’m not going to miss them next time we play them. . . . They wouldn’t miss, man. When we needed them to miss, they made them.”

After the game, Bryant said Jackson told the team that there should be no weeping over the streak.

“We’ve got another game to play tomorrow,” Bryant said. “Throw this one in the bag, get ready for Minnesota.”

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It’s Over

The Lakers’ winning streak ended at 16 games Friday (averages include loss):

at Vancouver: 106-94

Detroit: 101-93

Clippers: 95-68

at Atlanta: 95-88

at Minnesota: 97-88

at Toronto: 94-88

at Boston: 99-90

San Antonio: 99-93

Dallas: 108-106

Phoenix: 103-87

Clippers: 122-98

Clippers: 118-101

Charlotte: 87-83

at Seattle: 110-100

Denver: 130-95

at Milwaukee: 103-94

at Indiana: 102-111

Laker Avg: 104.1

Opponent Avg: 92.8

Triple Plays / The Big 3

Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and Glen Rice have been the driving force behind the Lakers’ success. How they fared:

O’Neal

Fri.: 22 Points

Season: 27.7

Fri.: 14 Rebounds

Season: 14.5

Fri: 4 Assists

Season: 3.4

*

BRYANT

Fri.: 18 Points

Season: 22.9

Fri.: 7 Rebounds

Season: 6.0

Fri: 3 Assists

Season: 4.1

*

RICE

Fri.: 23 Points

Season: 17.3

Fri.: 5 Rebounds

Season: 4.4

Fri: 2 Assists

Season: 2.4