Lakers Take Over the Farm

The only sound, after the raucous cowbells from behind the bench and the hysterical shrieks from the rest of them had died in the growing disappointment, came from Phil Jackson’s lips, from the two-pinkie whistle that always spins their heads.

“Fish! Fish! Fish!” he cried. “Fish! Don’t let them score! Turn around! Don’t let them score!”

A few seconds later, with Derek Fisher firmly on the ball, time ran out and Jackson smiled in spite of himself, perhaps amused by his own knee-jerk overkill. The Lakers beat the Sacramento Kings, 84-72, before a crowd of 17,317 Sunday afternoon at Arco Arena, where Jackson milked every bit of a fourth quarter that could have turned their season.

In the town whose inhabitants he once labeled “semi-civilized,” before citizens dressed--drolly, presumably--as cows and various other farm life, Jackson coached it right to the end, with a cacophony of insults hurled at the back of his slick, big-city David-Rickey suit.

Beset by questions of injury--Kobe Bryant did not make the trip and won’t play until Wednesday night at the earliest, and Ron Harper might be ready by the playoffs--and of character, the Lakers shoved an 18-0 fourth-quarter run at the Kings, who took a seven-point fourth-quarter lead and then missed their next 15 field goals.

Shaquille O’Neal fell into early foul trouble and missed 10 of his first 14 shots, then blitzed the Kings with 16 points and five rebounds in the fourth quarter. He scored 11 points in a stretch that had the Lakers turn a 62-53 deficit into a 71-62 lead.

With their sixth consecutive win against the Kings and their 10th win in 12 games in this arena, the Lakers pulled into a virtual tie with the Kings atop the Pacific Division, percentage points back. They also hold the first tiebreaker, head-to-head results, as they are 3-0 in the season series. The series finale is Wednesday at Staples Center. King Coach Rick Adelman missed the game because of the flu.

“My guys stayed with it,” O’Neal said on his way to the team bus. “They played a hell of a game. Usually, when I’m off, we’ll be down by 15. My hat goes off to the guys. I knew I wasn’t going to miss them all day.”

With Bryant presumably watching from his place in the Palisades, where he is resting his strained left ankle, O’Neal finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds. He made eight of 21 field goals. His free throws got a little sideways on him, but made five of his final six for seven of 15 overall.

By the end, when the free throws fell and the victory was assured, O’Neal hung his hand above his head, posing, dashing down the court, mocking a crowd that mocked him. He put the game away with a steal in his lane, four gigantic dribbles down the court and a dunk that gave the Lakers a 75-64 lead.

He shouted at the people here to, uh, be quiet, particularly the skinny guy in the purple afro and hair net who clanged the bell in his ear all game. On that fast-break basket, O’Neal stole a lazy pass from Chris Webber, which made enough sense.

Guarded primarily by Horace Grant, who blocked a season-high four shots, Webber missed 19 of 26 shots, started pouting early when shots didn’t fall and calls didn’t come, and never shook the gloom. He scored 15 points, two in the fourth quarter, when the Kings took a glorious afternoon and perhaps spent their hopes of a division championship.

Despite Webber’s sorry play, the Kings held the Lakers to 14 third-quarter points, took a 45-28 rebounding edge into the fourth quarter and, as the crowd whooped, appeared ready to end the dominance of the Lakers. Then they made four shots in 22 tries in that fourth quarter, and were outscored, 31-12.

“It wasn’t a beautiful game to watch but it was the kind of game we have to play, especially without Kobe,” Jackson said. “Shaq got going, finally, and at the end of the third into the fourth we got back on track. And our bench played real well to get us back into the lead.”

Despite the early frustrations of open misses and hard, group fouls, Jackson said, “He got himself through it. They were smothering him at some point early in the first half. It was frustrating, because they got the ball as he was bringing it up. We were fortunate to stay with this team in the first half until we got an opportunity.”

The Lakers pushed O’Neal to respond. Fisher, at one timeout, shouted something into O’Neal’s ear and then shoved the mammoth O’Neal off balance. Fisher said he merely tried to motivate O’Neal to drive through the fouls of Vlade Divac and Scot Pollard.

“He’s got to finish that anyway,” Fisher said. “He needs that from us. We needed to draw around him when he was down and struggling, and this was a big game. To defend this team on their home court, it’s big, because we’ve been questioning our defense all year.”

They played their defense right to the end. Jackson made sure of that.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

WEST RACE

Because of tiebreaker over Kings, Lakers are second in the Western Conference:

TEAM GB

1. San Antonio --

2. Lakers 2

3. Utah 1

4. Sacramento 2

5. Portland 3 1/2

6. Dallas 4 1/2

7. Phoenix 7

8. Minnesota 7 1/2

*

Note: The top two are division leaders.