The Rider Option Was the Wrong One

Isaiah Rider was the guy with the basketball at the end, searching for a friendly pair of hands, and when he finally pried the basketball out of the double team it was too late, the Lakers had already lost.

They could not turn to Shaquille O’Neal, who missed Saturday night’s game because of a sprained left ankle. And they did not turn to Kobe Bryant, because Phil Jackson chose not to.

So there was Rider, pinched in by George McCloud and Antonio McDyess when the final eight seconds expired in the Denver Nuggets’ 87-86 victory over the Lakers at Pepsi Center. Rider appearing unsure. Bryant not really in the play. O’Neal not even in the room.

“[Jackson] put me in a position to be a hero,” Rider said.

Afterward, 15 minutes after the Lakers had given back a 13-point fourth-quarter lead, after the Nuggets scored 17 consecutive fourth-quarter points, Jackson leaned against a wall and conceded he probably should not have given Rider the ball at the end.

“We just didn’t play it right,” Jackson said. “It might be my fault for trying to go to him too early in the year without sufficient knowledge of what’s around him.”

Rider said he was astonished when, with 17 seconds left and the Lakers a basket away from playing without Shaq and giving all of those points back and winning anyway, Jackson wrote the play for him.

“I had been coming out of the game prior to that,” Rider said.

Meaning, probably, that Jackson has been dissatisfied with Rider’s play. Rider missed eight of 12 field-goal attempts in 21 minutes. He was benched with 3:55 left, stood up with only those 17 seconds remaining, then had the do-or-die play drawn for him.

He was supposed to post up the shortish Nick Van Exel. Instead, the tallish McCloud stood before him and McDyess drifted over, as well.

“I was surprised when Phil called my number because Kobe had been hot,” Rider said. “The play was designed for me to post up, but McDyess made me change my mind on going inside and made me step out. And time ran out.”

That it came to a play that he had to diagram on his clipboard was annoying for Jackson. The Lakers played decently without O’Neal for the better part of three-plus quarters.

Horace Grant scored 18 points and took a season-high 12 rebounds. Bryant scored 32 points, his fifth consecutive game with at least 31. Greg Foster was adequate in 25 minutes, and Ron Harper and Brian Shaw combined for six assists and no turnovers in 49 minutes.

“We were at the height of inefficiency at the end of the game,” Jackson said. “I don’t know why we were taking three-pointers.”

It fell apart at Lakers 82, Nuggets 69, after Bryant scored on a fastbreak, reverse dunk with about seven minutes left. The Nuggets tied it, 82-82, on a McDyess free throw three minutes later, and finished their 17-0 run when McDyess hit a nine-foot turnaround jumper five minutes later.

Meantime, the Lakers missed six field-goal attempts--including two three-pointers by Bryant, a three by Robert Horry and a three by Shaw--and had three turnovers.

The Lakers scored 15 fourth-quarter points, eight by Bryant and seven by Rider.

“When you have the talent on this ballclub and the smarts, you shouldn’t have a game like this,” Grant said. “We just didn’t execute. We’re not good enough yet to not execute.”

McDyess had 28 points and 18 rebounds. Raef LaFrentz, who did not rush out and jump into Foster’s arms, elated as he might have been to see him and not Shaq, had 10 rebounds.

The Lakers pieced together a center from Foster, Mark Madsen and Grant. They were sent off to play the likes of LaFrentz and McDyess.

And then the game was too close, came down to a possession or two, and there was no one to funnel the slashing guards toward, no one to move out the ponderous forwards, and no one to intimidate the quick ones.

And then time ran out, without even a shot.

*

SEATTLE 86

CLIPPERS 83

Lamar Odom had another big game, but Clippers committed 30 turnovers in defeat. D7

MARK HEISLER

ON NBA, D7