Series Has Big Shoes to Fill

Hold up, wait a minute.

Can we put the NBA finals on hold? Has the start of the championship series ever felt so anticlimactic?

In all likelihood, Lakers-Pacers will be more competitive than people expect, but there’s no way it can top the drama produced by Game 7 of the Western Conference finals. Prepare for the Afterthought Series, the basketball equivalent of Jan. 2, 2000.

How can the fans get up for Indiana when all anyone wants to do is rewind, replay and relive Sunday’s fourth quarter, over and over?

The Lakers’ comeback from a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter was as good a piece of sports theater as we’ve had around here for a long time.

The Lakers gave it all they had, confidently shooting jumpers on offense and contesting every shot on defense.

It was so draining, Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t even think of a new nickname for himself.

The Big . . .

“I don’t know,” he said.

Now the challenge is to gear up for the Pacers after spending the entire season anticipating the collision with Portland.

It doesn’t help that there is no postseason history between the teams. Reggie Miller doesn’t have an ongoing battle with Jack Nicholson the way he does with Spike Lee.

Watching Larry Bird in a suit at Staples Center isn’t the same as watching him in a Celtics’ uniform at the Great Western Forum.

The other challenge today is to think of comebacks similar to Sunday’s in recent years. It’s hard to compare the scoring and timing of a basketball game with other major sports; the Lakers weren’t battling against outs or strokes.

Same thing from Portland’s perspective: it’s tough to equate that fourth-quarter collapse with a grounder rolling through Bill Buckner’s legs in the 1986 World Series or Greg Norman’s ball sinking into the water on the 12th hole at The Masters in 1996.

Buffalo’s comeback from a 35-3 deficit against Houston in the 1993 NFL playoffs comes to mind.

The most natural comparison is the Chicago Bulls in Game 6 of the 1992 NBA finals, especially since that involved Phil Jackson and the Trail Blazers.

The Bulls, leading the series three games to two, trailed by 15 points in the fourth quarter. Jackson sent out a lineup including unheralded players Scott Williams, Bobby Hansen and Stacey King, while Michael Jordan sat on the bench. The Bulls came back, then Jordan returned to finish the job and Chicago had its second NBA championship.

The fans at Chicago Stadium refused to let go, rocking the old building until the players returned from the locker room and started dancing atop the scorer’s table. (That scene prompted the NBA to move its trophy presentation to midcourt instead of a champagne-soaked room back in the tunnels.)

With a championship there for the taking, there was a greater reward at stake for the Bulls. There was also the comfort zone of a Game 7 at home if they lost.

The Lakers had no such cushion. If they had lost on Sunday, their season would come to a halt well short of its original destination. They would have faced a summer of explaining how a team could accomplish the rare playoff triple-play of blowing a 3-1 lead in the series, losing three home games in a row and losing a Game 7 at home.

The 89-84 victory Sunday also spared the Lakers from having to explain a 20-for-37 performance from the free-throw line. It’s hard to believe the Lakers could win such a close game against a good team while shooting 54% on free throws. You couldn’t even pin this one on the usual suspect; O’Neal actually made more free throws than Bryant in the same number of attempts (eight of 12 vs. six of 12).

Missed free throws will kill the Lakers against the Pacers, who are converting free throws at an 82% rate during the playoffs.

The other advantage the Pacers have is the Lakers’ defensive strength--the strong inside presence of O’Neal--doesn’t mean a thing to Indiana’s perimeter-oriented offense. The Lakers will have to cover the entire floor, and O’Neal will have to roam out to the 15-foot range against Pacer center Rik Smits and out to three-point range against backup Sam Perkins.

Of course, the Pacers still have to stop O’Neal, without the benefit of Scottie Pippen’s knowledge and court presence.

The Laker performance in that most dire of predicaments Sunday spoke volumes about the character of this team. It was another step in the learning curve of this team.

It seems as if they’ve already had about five of those “growth games” during the playoffs. That just shows how long the NBA postseason is.

It encompasses all of horse racing’s Triple Crown, spans tennis’ French Open and lasts until the brink of Wimbledon.

The numbers are smaller now, just four more victories in a maximum of seven games will deliver the Lakers their first championship since 1988.

As we’ve just seen, a seven-game series can seem like an odyssey in itself.

At least when the next one is over, it will really be over.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com