No Try-Ankle Offense

Think of the possibilities! You know Kobe Bryant did.

The locker-room door opens. A tall young man hobbles out onto the floor, the Conseco Fieldhouse roar drops to a stunned and worried hush, his teammates beam, Phil Jackson grins, the NBA finals are brought to a standstill.

And Bryant, sprained ankle healed, lopes out on the court to save the day and bring the Lakers one step from a championship.

But Sunday’s Game 3 came and went, the Lakers rose and fell, rose again and finally fell, 100-91 to the emotional Indiana Pacers before a sellout crowd at Conseco.

The trumpets never blared. The spotlight stayed away. Conseco absolutely did not hush.

Bryant never emerged.

Not even in street clothes on the bench, not as a hero, witness or villain.

So, one superstar short of their usual quota, the Lakers got 33 points and 13 rebounds from Shaquille O’Neal and several other strong supporting performances, but they never seemed to run at full speed.

The defeat narrowed the Lakers’ series lead to 2-1, with Game 4 on Wednesday and Game 5 on Friday, both at Conseco, before the series returns, if necessary to Staples Center for the last two games .

“It was a tough decision, but I think it’s better for us in the long run,” said Jackson, who made the call about 35 minutes before tipoff despite Bryant’s attempts to convince him otherwise. “He accepted it.”

Brian Shaw started in Bryant’s place, and understandably struggled in the role, missing seven of his 10 field-goal attempts and turning the ball over twice.

Forward Glen Rice, whom the Lakers hoped would assume the scoring load, if not the mantle, of a superstar, fizzled away, making only three baskets and having enough trouble defending Jalen Rose that Jackson held Rice out for most of the fourth quarter.

Reggie Miller answered the call for Indiana, scoring 33 points, with Rose adding 21, and the Pacers putting together a solid defensive effort against O’Neal and the turnover-prone (16 in the game) Laker offense.

So, as if anything else was ever possible, the Laker theater plays on, almost louder and definitely more fascinating than the basketball being played, even if it is the NBA finals.

They are still only two victories away from a championship, but still fragile enough to be bounced around by any little twist (or twisted ankle), game-time decision or Miller explosion.

No home team has ever won all three middle games of a NBA finals, which Indiana would have to do to maintain a lead heading into Games 6 and 7 at Staples.

“We’re still in control of this series right now,” forward Rick Fox said. “But we still have to win a game here.”

Said O’Neal, who made only three of 13 free throws: “We’re not going to make excuses. We know exactly what we have to do, and we are going to come back at full health.

“They came at us with the best they had, and we still had a couple opportunities to win. . . .

“We came in here knowing we didn’t have Kobe, but we didn’t play smart. Every time we got back into the game, we shot ourselves in the foot.”

Without Bryant, the Lakers never led, but they made 50% of their shots and rambled into position twice to steal the game, once in the third quarter, once in the fourth, but shaky ball control and poor free-throw shooting blew both opportunities.

Said forward Robert Horry: “When you have a player like Kobe out and you have another key player like Shaq, you try to ride his back a little too much.

“I think, tonight, we went to Shaq a lot. In doing so, we made a lot of dumb errors, which were a lot of turnovers. That killed us. . . .

“They came out and they did things that we thought that we’d do.”

Jackson had said it would be Bryant’s decision whether to play, but the coach clearly had to make the decision for the player, figuring in the Lakers’ series lead and need to win only one of the three games in Indiana to keep control of the momentum.

After the game, Bryant was unavailable to reporters, but Jackson and the Laker players gave every indication that, with two more days off to rest the ankle, they figure Bryant will be roaring to go in Game 4.

“It’s not some major shift in momentum,” said Ron Harper, who scored 14 points and had five steals but also five turnovers. “We killed ourselves. We should have had this game.”

O’Neal, who pounded Indiana for 83 points in the first two games, still was effective (making 15 of 24 shots), but he had a lot more trouble finding space against the quicker double-teams.

The Pacers, meanwhile, sped up the rhythm of the game, and pushed the Lakers into awkward positions, fast shots and fumbling turnovers.

“Actually, we had some good shots, but we played at a pace that was more Pacer ball than ours,” Jackson said. “I thought we got out of whack a little bit with too many turnovers.”

Said Indiana Coach Larry Bird: “If we didn’t win today, we were in a world of trouble. We had to win a game to get back in the series, which we did.”

In the last Laker surge, a 6-0 run brought the score to 91-87, with just over two minutes to play.

But Miller made two free throws, Mark Jackson made one, O’Neal missed two free throws, and soon the game was out of hand.

“I think it was more about the Pacers playing to a level we didn’t match,” Fox said. “In the NBA finals, you’re up 2-0 on the opponents’ floor, they needed to rejuvenate themselves to get the win.

“We didn’t match that. . . . We didn’t make the plays. We got close. We got to the point, then the shots didn’t go down.”

Said guard Derek Fisher: “Guys on our team stepped up offensively, did their job, but we just turned the basketball over too much, and you just can’t do that on the road.”

Fisher himself provided 10 points and 10 assists, but blamed himself for allowing Travis Best (14 points, after scoring only six combined in the previous two games) better looks at the basket.

“I think we did a good enough job of it on the offensive end doing what we had to do to stay in the game, then in the second half we had some turnovers where we just didn’t mesh well in what we were trying to do,” Fisher said.

“And on the road, you have to get defensive stops at the right times. We failed on that end, then we’d come down on our end and turn the basketball over.

“Those things just don’t combine when you’re trying to win games on the road.”

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Way Off Line

Shaquille O’Neal’s poor free-throw shooting Sunday, including several important misses in the fourth quarter, was one of the keys to the Laker loss:

FIRST QUARTER

* 1:08 left--Makes one of two attempts (1 for 2 in game). Score: Pacers, 23-13

THIRD QUARTER

* 9:35--Misses attempt to convert three-point play (1 for 3). Score: Pacers, 53-44

* 1:57--Makes one of two attempts (2 for 5). Score: Pacers, 76-59

* 52.4--Misses attempt to convert three-point play (2 for 6). Score: Pacers, 79-63

FOURTH QUARTER

* 10:19--Misses two attempts (2 for 8). Score: Pacers, 79-68

* 3:48--Misses attempt to convert three-point play (2 for 9). Score: Pacers, 89-83

* 1:50--Misses two attempts (2 for 11). Score: Pacers, 93-87

* 51.9--Makes one of two attempts (3 for 13). Score: 94-88

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--Researched by HOUSTON MITCHELL

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BY THE NUMBERS

3-13

Shaquille O’Neal’s free-throw shooting in Game 3 (.231)

22-58

O’Neal’s free throw shooting after three games (.379)

7, 27

Points, minutes for Glen Rice in Game 3

10.3

Points per games for Rice after three games

33

Points for Reggie Miller

28

Combines points for Miller in first two games

COVERAGE

Blue Chips on Shoulders

Pacers show they are more than ready to meet the emotional challenge. W3

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Pacers Get Wake-Up Call

While Indiana finally showed some spark, the Lakers were fizzling at the start. W3

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Is O’Neal Big Non-Factor?

Despite Shaq’s 33 points, the Pacers say they did a good job of controlling him. W7

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