A Laker Close-Out Sail

Watching Kobe Bryant drain a three-pointer.

Thinking about Scottie Pippen ending a series with one.

Watching Shaquille O’Neal muscle an offensive rebound.

Thinking about Brian Grant saving a game with one.

Watching a rejuvenated Robert Horry and Rick Fox chase rebounds and slap away dribbles and sink jumpers.

Thinking, Rasheed Wallace is waiting.

The Lakers returned home, returned to supernatural, returned the Phoenix Suns to their gawdawful dirt front lawns Tuesday with an 87-65 series-clinching victory in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals.

But the mind wandered more than Jason Kidd’s jumper.

Because the Lakers returned, for the first time in nine years, to the NBA championships.

OK, so the mind wandered more than even Kidd’s barber; it’s only the Western Conference finals.

But it’s the Portland Trail Blazers.

It’s the two best teams.

It’s the most important series in this city since the Oakland Athletics unpacked their biceps at Chavez Ravine more than 11 years ago.

It begins Saturday here at 12:30 p.m., a luncheon that begins a feast that should last long into the night, at least six courses, maybe seven.

“It’s going to be a dogfight,” said Glen Rice. “Both teams are going to come in well prepared. We’re going to play our best basketball every night. It’s going to be a fight.”

A fight so big, the hype began before this Phoenix fight ended.

The Lakers dunked and danced and winked like their old selves Tuesday in front of a properly frightened, proudly screaming Staples Center crowd.

But an equally important scene was the one folks saw earlier on television.

There was Portland, suddenly looking as jittery as a Laker with someone screaming in his ear, barely tip-toeing past the plodding Utah Jazz in the other semifinal series.

There was Portland, still with the stronger playoff resume, earning the same three days off.

There was the one team that can scare the Lakers with its strength, speed and scrubs.

And sometime during the Lakers’ 28-9 second-quarter dismantling of the dreadful-shooting Suns, the question was murmured.

So what now?

(Wait a minute, Wallace was just assessed his first technical foul of the series for screaming at the team travel agent for not giving him an aisle seat).

So anyway, what now?

The question hit the Lakers like an early alarm.

They’re tired, they want to roll over and forget about it for a while, but it’s up there buzzing and buzzing and buzzing.

So, are they ready for the one and only team that can probably keep them from a June trip to the jeweler?

Count Shaquille O’Neal in.

He didn’t speak to the media for two consecutive days this week, which is like Jerry Buss showing up without starlets. Then the game started, and you couldn’t shut him up.

Shaq snarled and glared and took all of 15 seconds to bang through a hook shot that started the soundtrack.

He needed only one half to grab 13 rebounds.

He needed less than three quarters to knock Rodney Rogers on his keister, be assessed a technical foul, and unapologetically glare some more.

“When you drive a sports car into a brick wall, that’s going to be the outcome,” O’Neal said.

In every big game this postseason--and there have been more than we figured--the Lakers’ biggest player has been their biggest player.

Here’s guessing Shaq will be that brick wall again Saturday.

So will Kobe Bryant, even if we don’t notice him right away.

Four of the first five times he touched the ball Tuesday, Kobe passed the ball, attempting to get some of those early-game bystanders involved.

Then he shrugged, hit a three-pointer at the 24-second buzzer, gave the Lakers a 9-6 lead, and they never trailed again.

Kobe loves this stuff. He’ll not only be there Saturday, he’ll probably be there just after midnight Friday.

That’s two of 12 players.

The Blazers often get contributions from nine of 12.

So what about every other Laker?

That’s how this series will be won.

“Their bench is a little bit deeper,” said O’Neal.

Somebody--A.C. Green or Horry?--has to guard Wallace.

Somebody else--Glen Rice?--is going to have to guard Pippen.

And if Kobe guards Pippen after begging Phil Jackson for the assignment, then who guards Steve Smith?

And what in the name of dreadlocks are the Lakers going to do with Brian Grant?

“Brian Grant is the X-factor,” Derek Fisher said. “He provides a physical presence that their starters sometimes don’t.”

Kobe and Shaq will combine for their 50 points and a dozen highlights every night, but the series will be won with the stuff you don’t see.

On Tuesday, the Laker reserves showed it to us.

After sometimes spending long stretches going nowhere, Horry was everywhere, blocking shots, grabbing rebounds, running down the floor. And his name was running off Laker fans’ tongues.

“Hor-ry, Hor-ry,” they chanted, words that were hard to distinguish at first because few around here had heard them in that context before.

Harper also played harder and younger than in recent weeks, even grabbing more rebounds (five) than assists (three).

Finally, at long last, Rice also seems ready. He hit four of 10 shots and added nine rebounds and helped stifle the Suns inside.

“We have so much confidence at home, we feel like we just can’t lose here,” Rice said.

In the playoffs, they haven’t yet. They absolutely cannot now. The season starts Saturday.

*

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.