Lakers Taking Show on Road

The roar from outside, from the engine of the low-slung motorcycle, a chrome and candy-apple red cruiser with the Superman logos on it, caused Phil Jackson to pause and smile.

Another jab at the throttle, more thunder, and the racket chased the motorcycle away.

“There goes your center,” someone said, and Jackson nodded.

“Makes me feel real comfortable,” he said.

It made perfect sense that Shaquille O’Neal arose Wednesday morning and, from a motor pool of Ferraris and Mercedes-Benzes and other shiny, four-door objects, chose the Titan motorcycle with “Almighty Conceitedness” painted on the rear fender.

After recording at least 40 points and 20 rebounds in consecutive playoff games, O’Neal found it was a good day for daring, a good day to skirt the traffic jams, and a good day just to be him.

“Am I impressed by it?” he said. “No. But I’m happy. I don’t know. It takes a lot to move me.”

There is so much left to do, of course, and so much to move. The first successive 40-and-20 games in NBA playoff history have the Lakers ahead, two games to none, in the best-of-seven series against the Sacramento Kings, who trudged out of town Tuesday night openly questioning their conviction. Game 3 is Friday night at Arco Arena.

But the Lakers stood in a similar place a year ago, and in that opening best-of-five series returned home not with a series victory but with an all-or-nothing fifth game after losing twice at Sacramento.

O’Neal was eight for 21 from the field in a regular-season victory in Sacramento on March 25 and said he has never liked the feel of his shot at Arco Arena. Four months before, however, O’Neal made 16 of 22 shots in another regular-season victory.

“I have not put together a good, solid game at Arco,” said O’Neal, who averaged 23 points and 16.5 rebounds in the two playoff games there last season. “Hopefully, when I get the ball in deep position, my shots will fall.

“We have to have almost a perfect game to beat them at home. We just need to win one of two games. It would be nice if we could win two, but one of two would be fine.”

Playoff basketball hardly ever is about regular-season statistics. After the playoff losses at Sacramento last season, Ron Harper said the Lakers played “scared,” in part because of an atmosphere as raucous as any in the league, and perhaps in part because few of those Lakers had ever been in such a situation.

A week and a half ago, however, the Lakers closed out the crumbling Portland Trail Blazers at the Rose Garden. The Kings, too, appear to be going to pieces, overrun by O’Neal and a Laker team that suddenly has its act together.

“Right now it seems like we’re playing with so much confidence and we’re on such a roll,” Laker guard Brian Shaw said. “I wouldn’t say we were less confident last year, but we relied on the home court.”

Their ability to finish Portland, to not allow that series to steal even an ounce of their momentum, Shaw said, “is the difference. We had opportunities to close teams off and we didn’t do it.”

The Lakers have been a composed team for five weeks. They have won 13 consecutive games, the last five in the postseason. While O’Neal has played something close to his best game, and Kobe Bryant has scored and played energetic defense, the Lakers haven’t shot well or protected the ball against the Kings. And, still, they have been the better team, which reminds most people of last season.

Those Lakers assumed they’d play better, that O’Neal would get some help, and they’d close out the Kings. The Kings played better twice, clamped down on O’Neal, and forced a game the Lakers never thought they’d see.

They didn’t play great last week in Portland, but they brought greater effort than the Trail Blazers.

“That’s the style of ball we want to play,” Bryant said. “We’re going to try to grind it out.”

They’ll grind through O’Neal again, for sure, because Vlade Divac and Scot Pollard aren’t strong enough to stop him and because Sacramento Coach Rick Adelman hasn’t convinced the others of the urgency of the double team. And now Adelman’s getting sarcastic. Told Jackson remarked it appeared the Kings had decided to allow O’Neal and Bryant to press their offense, in hopes of shutting down the rest of the Lakers, Adelman rolled his eyes.

“Well, I would never disagree with Phil,” he said. “He knows the game inside and out. I mean, give me Shaq. You know? He catches it too deep. We let him catch it at the basket too many times.

“I thought there were times our guys, for whatever reason, hesitated. Once he gets moving we’re not going to stop him. He’s going to split you and get to the basket. . . . So I disagree with him. . . . But he’s got pretty good players that have dominated us for two games. We have to find a way to counteract it a little bit and see if we can’t turn the tables in Sacramento. But I certainly will look into that to see if he’s right or not.”

About the time Adelman was lurching through that, Pollard was telling reporters that his confidence had taken a hit. The Lakers were buying none of it.

“Any time you have a team that’s as good as Sacramento is--that has had two losses in a row in a critical situation like this, they’re just having a little letdown perhaps after a game,” Jackson said. “Certainly by Friday night their resolve will be back. There’s no doubt we’re going to have to play better than we did in either of these two to beat them on their home court.”

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INSIDE

PHILADELPHIA 97, TORONTO 92

Allen Iverson scored 54 points, 19 in the fourth quarter, as the 76ers evened the series at 1-1. D8

SAN ANTONIO 104, DALLAS 90

The Mavericks went cold and the Spurs dominated the boards to take a 3-0 series lead. D8