Not Everything Goes as Planned

Sometimes it’s not all about the Lakers.

Sometimes Reggie Miller hits a three-pointer right off the bat and then Jalen Rose makes one. So Miller makes another and elderly Sam Perkins does the same and Rose goes for two more. In the first quarter. Six for six from far, far away for the Indiana Pacers.

It happens.

Sometimes it’s not all about Los Angeles.

We may not like it, but that’s the way it is.

Sometimes Rose, who felt a little ignored in Game 4, goes layup, layup and three-point basket in the second quarter to put his team ahead, 46-32. Tiny Travis Best, who crunched his left shoulder, the shoulder on his shooting arm, taking a flagrant foul against Shaquille O’Neal in Game 4, comes into this game limp-armed and squiggles free to make a 20-footer and then stutter-steps free to make a 12-footer.

Sometimes the Lakers just don’t matter.

Sometimes Pacer Coach Larry Bird says his team needs to find pride and heart and the desire to not watch the Lakers win an NBA championship at Conseco Fieldhouse and his team listens. His team feels the desperate hopes of the fans who fill this arena, which is brand new and yet already touched with Hoosier past greatness because it is filled with trophies and videos and lots of talk about the history of a state and its game. The Pacers hear their coach and feel those hopes and go out and just play old-fashioned basketball.

Just like Larry Bird used to.

They make jump shots and defend everybody ferociously. They set picks and move, always move. They make the Lakers’ heads spin. Just like Larry Bird used to.

Sometimes Kobe Bryant plays as if he is 21 years old and has a sore left ankle. Sometimes he commits too many fouls and makes not enough shots because skinny, frantic Reggie Miller just won’t let him alone, won’t get out of his face, won’t just go away.

Sometimes it can’t be about the Lakers because they don’t listen to their coach. They don’t hear Phil Jackson talk about the great Chicago Bull championship teams and how they closed out championship series quickly because who knows what bad things might happen? Because who knows when O’Neal might step on somebody’s leg and twist an ankle?

These young Lakers aren’t quite ready to buy that but also the Pacers were going to have none of that.

Sometimes it’s good to have the old team that will be torn apart when the season is over. Sometimes it helps when everybody on the team is playing as if this might be their last game in front of these fans who never see the bad, who always see the good, who always have hope, who constantly expect Rik Smits to move as if he were 23 again, who just know that Miller will make everything and that Austin Croshere is going to be as big a star as O’Neal and Bryant some day.

That’s what happened on Friday night in the rain and thunder of summertime Indianapolis. Hundreds stood wearing ponchos and holding umbrellas to watch the game outside and try not to be hit by lightning. They were rewarded because the Pacers electrocuted the Lakers.

Sometimes things just happen.

Blame the Lakers if you must.

Gnash your teeth all weekend waiting for Monday’s Game 6. Fret over the health of Bryant and heart of Glen Rice but relax.

The series comes back to Los Angeles now. It will be about the Lakers again. Forget about the 120-87 loss in Game 5. The Lakers will.

Forget about how Mark Jackson was able to bank in a jump shot over O’Neal as the 24-second shot clock moved from 1 to 0 in the third quarter just when it seemed the Lakers might rally. Forget how Smits scampered in and out of the game dodging foul trouble as if he were dodging raindrops, showing up long enough to draw O’Neal out of the lane and still be unable to stop Smits from making consecutive 15-footers in the third quarter.

Forget how Rick Fox, out of control, tried to wrench Croshere’s shoulder from its socket and got himself a flagrant foul and allowed the Pacers four points in eight seconds, making the score 86-67 with 31.4 seconds left in the third quarter and making the fourth quarter one long, loud Hoosier celebration.

Sometimes things aren’t about the Lakers. They just aren’t. So the Pacers have had their fun because they just had to. It was more important for the Pacers to win this last game at Conseco than it was for the Lakers to become champions on this particular night.

Sometimes that’s what happens. But it better not happen again.

Or there could be trouble.

*

Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com.