Unbalanced Lakers Trip

So spent on Friday night, Kobe Bryant ended up taped to an IV bottle.

Through a door not far away, Shaquille O’Neal felt absolutely fine, other than the usual fatigue that follows defeat. He was fresh, and thinking he could have saved Bryant at least some of the effort.

As it was, Bryant took all of the important shots and many of the others. In a raucous gym, in a heated game that re-stirred the Western Conference alignment, in a desperate few moments that for a while reminded most what the Lakers were and could be again, the San Antonio Spurs stopped Bryant, and that was good enough.

The Spurs beat the Lakers, 93-89, in overtime at Staples Center, which had a nice playoff chill run up its back. Bryant made the shots at the end of regulation that tied it, then missed the shots that would have tied it again. In all, he took 33 field-goal attempts. He made 16. He scored 38 points and either left his teammates behind or picked up for them, depending on whose eyes you looked into.

O’Neal’s were wide and suspicious.

“We have to be careful and not have too many more games like this,” O’Neal said.

With both benches standing and defeat closing fast, Bryant hit the front of the rim on a three-point attempt that, six inches longer, would have tied the game with 3.2 seconds left. As it was, the Spurs gathered the rebound, made a free throw, and outscored the Lakers, 10-6, in an overtime in which O’Neal touched the basketball twice.

“Normally, we have a well-rounded attack,” said Bryant, feeling the drain of a stomach virus. “Tonight, shots weren’t falling for us.”

The Lakers didn’t make a three-point shot for the first time in more than two years. Only O’Neal, who scored 33 points on 23 field-goal attempts, and Bryant scored in double figures for the Lakers.

Off to the side, pulling on his socks, Rick Fox mulled a game in which he missed each of seven shots, four of them threes.

“I can’t help but feel if I made one shot we wouldn’t have been in that situation,” Fox said. “I personally take responsibility for the outcome. I haven’t had one of those games in a while. That angers me, because of the magnitude of the game.”

The Lakers lost for the first time in five games. The Spurs won their sixth in a row.

San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich looked out over the conference and said, “Every game is huge for every team. For all of us, every game is huge. That’s the truth. Anybody who says different is blowing smoke at you.”

Even in defeat, Laker Coach Phil Jackson could not disagree.

“They’re pretty big,” he said.

They both played to state a point they won’t really make until June, and to gain a little on the five-team tangle atop the Western Conference.

Bryant scored the Lakers’ final four points of regulation, and Derek Anderson missed long from 20 feet at the regulation buzzer. Both teams scored 17 fourth-quarter points, which led them into overtime tied, 83-83.

Slowly, through the feuds and the injuries and the dispassionate defense, the Lakers had climbed into the lead in the Pacific Division, and to within a game from home-court advantage in the conference playoffs.

Through their own injuries, and through their own occasional flat play, including a home defeat to the Kobe-less Lakers 2 1/2 weeks ago, the Spurs drew to within a half-game of Utah in the Midwest Division.

And an announcement that Portland had lost again, to Vancouver again, drew cheers and laughter from the packed arena.

So the stare down, the sizing up, between the Spurs and Lakers began a few months later than expected. Both teams are getting their games in order. Tim Duncan scored 29 points. Anderson scored 21.

The Lakers were in it because of a 16-0 run they made late in the second quarter and early in the third. From a 44-29 deficit with four minutes left before the half, the Lakers took a 45-44 lead before the seats were filled again.

Bryant awoke Friday morning in the throes of a stomach virus. He did not attend the team shoot-around later in the morning, and was wrung out when he arrived at the arena in the early evening.

It has been that kind of a season for Bryant.

When it hasn’t been one ankle or another, it’s been a knee. Or a hip. Or a shoulder. If it’s not a virus in his lungs, it’s in his stomach.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE WILD WEST

How the top five teams stood at the All-Star break compared to now:

ALL-STAR BREAK

1. Portland 35-15

2. Utah 32-15

3. San Antonio 31-16

4. Sacramento 31-15

5. LAKERS 31-16

*

THROUGH FRIDAY

1. Utah 43-18

2. Sacramento 41-19

3. San Antonio 43-19

4. LAKERS 41-20

5. Portland 42-21

*

TOP GAMES

Games top contenders have remaining against each other:

* Lakers--at Sacramento, Sacramento, at Utah, Portland

* Portland--Utah, at San Antonio, at Utah, at Sacramento, at LAKERS, San Antonio

* Sacramento--Utah, LAKERS, at LAKERS, at Utah, Portland, at San Antonio

* San Antonio--Portland, Utah, Sacramento, at Portland

* Utah--at Sacramento, at Portland, Portland, at San Antonio, LAKERS, Sacramento

*

BIG CONCERN

Phil Jackson doesn’t know if he will be able to count on J.R. Rider for the rest of the season. D9