Lakers Show an Ability to Overcome Adversity

The Lakers managed to overcome the fundamental and the supernatural Friday.

Common NBA logic says a team can’t win a close game when it shoots 32 for 57 from the free-throw line and the opponent shoots 33 for 39.

Cosmic karma suggested that when the Lakers were on the wrong side of several bad bounces and one very bad roll, they might as well have packed their clothes--including their 1-1 NBA finals tie--and said “We’ll see you in Indiana.”

Yet somehow the final buzzer left the Lakers with a 111-104 victory, a 2-0 lead in the series and a pretty good indication of their willpower.

If they could get past this many obstacles in one game, the considerable home-court advantage provided by Indiana’s Conseco Fieldhouse can’t be too daunting.

Game 2 served as a reminder that, as Phil Jackson said before the game, “good fortune plays a major role in some of these things, too.”

As the Lakers have progressed through their championship quest they haven’t had major players miss games, as the Pacers did with the suspensions of Rik Smits and Reggie Miller and the New York Knicks did because of an injury to Patrick Ewing.

That all changed in the first quarter, when Kobe Bryant came down after a jump shot, rolled his left ankle on Jalen Rose’s foot, and had to go to the locker room, where he was tended to by Laker trainer Gary Vitti.

They were soon joined by Magic Johnson.

Johnson was thinking the same thing many longtime Laker observers were, that this looked an awful lot like the time Johnson pulled a hamstring in Game 2 of the 1989 NBA finals against the Detroit Pistons.

“That’s why I went in there,” Johnson said.

He wanted to tell Bryant not to come back too soon, that this was a long series and the Lakers would be much better off if he took time to recover and could return to form in the later, more critical games.

He was happy to see Bryant listen and it might be another sign that he is maturing.

“In the past, like in high school or something, I would have played,” Bryant said. “I would have just shot the ball every time. over here, they need me to play defense.”

About the only good break for the Lakers was a non-break; X-rays of Bryant’s ankle were negative.

The Staples Center rims were much less favorable.

It was a good indication Game 1 would go the Lakers’ way when Shaquille O’Neal’s first free throw hit the front of the rim and bounced in.

The Pacers got all of those types of baskets in Game 2, including jump shots by Austin Croshere and Dale Davis.

The Pacers outworked the Lakers for most of the game and hustled their way to many loose balls. They also lucked their way into a few favorable bounces.

O’Neal had a rebound to himself and dropped it out of bounds. Same for Rick Fox.

There was some funky officiating, too.

Austin Croshere got a rebound, was fouled by Derek Fisher, then got in Fisher’s face and glared at him.

Referee Joey Crawford called a technical foul on Croshere. But then he also called one on Fisher, who did nothing but stare back at Croshere. (Don’t be surprised if Fisher gets a sympathy e-mail from Rasheed Wallace this week).

The Lakers would have had a free throw if the technical were only on Croshere. But the double-technical meant no free throws for either team.

Later, O’Neal was taken to the ground on one end of the court and the referees only sent him to the free-throw line. He blocked a Travis Best layup at the other basket, made some body contact and got called for a flagrant foul, giving the Pacers two shots plus possession.

To make matters worse for the Lakers, it was his fifth personal foul and 6:40 still remained.

Just to show how fickle fate can be, O’Neal made the same play on Steve Smith at the end of the Portland series and wasn’t called for anything.

The three-point shot that banked in for Brian Shaw in that game instead belonged to Indiana’s Sam Perkins.

“They got the bank shot from Perkins,” Jackson said. “They got the couple bounces that went their way. Shots that hit rim and rimmed in. Little things were happening. It was just like, staying positive.”

The Pacers didn’t win this game, in part, because Reggie Miller didn’t take the ball. He didn’t demand it when the game was on the line, after the Pacers had pulled to within two.

Instead the Pacers went to Austin Croshere. Croshere emerged as Indiana’s most consistent performer through the first two games with a solid 24-point game Friday. But he doesn’t have as extensive a portfolio as Miller, he isn’t the player the Pacers would pick with their season on the line.

Croshere missed a jump shot, and after Fisher made a three-pointer for the Lakers, Croshere missed another jumper, leaving the Pacers down by seven points.

Miller didn’t get another shot until less than three minutes remained, a three-pointer that he missed.

In fact, his solid comeback from that one-for-16 disaster was wasted because he scored only two of his 21 points in the fourth quarter.

O’Neal took another bold step toward a championship and a finals MVP award with 40 points and 24 rebounds. His 18-for-39 effort at the free-throw line nearly cost the team the game, but he made just enough to “hold the fort,” as he first promised Bryant he would do when Kobe missed the first month of the season because of a broken bone in his hand.

And so it was Pacer Coach Larry Bird who was left to say: “It’s just unfortunate. I thought our guys played hard, we played well at times and just made mistakes down the stretch.”

It isn’t often that the lucky team is also a loser.

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