Laker Defense Plays an Active Role in Victory

When in San Antonio, do as the San Antonionians--or whatever it is they’re called--do.

The locals have seen a team play a game like this plenty of times in these playoffs. Score 100 or so points, play hellacious defense, keep the opposition to 90 points or fewer. Except usually it’s the Spurs who do that.

They’re supposed to be the defensive masters. Their opponents were shooting 38% in the playoffs.

Well, the Lakers made defense their hallmark Saturday. It was as if they stole the secret recipe and cooked it better themselves.

Everyone talks about how effective the Twin Towers of Tim Duncan and David Robinson are on defense. But it’s starting to look as if there is no defense for Kobe Bryant. And Shaquille O’Neal still managed to score 28 points on 11-for-22 shooting, many of them on angry dunks.

The Lakers shot 47% and reached triple digits in a 104-90 victory. But they took the 36,068 fans out of the scenario, then took Game 1 of the Western Conference finals with a defense that came up with 12 steals and six blocked shots.

“We were real active tonight,” said Robert Horry, who had three blocks and two steals. “I haven’t seen that in a long time. You see it in practice some days, but now guys realize what’s on the line.

“We need to get down on that ‘D’ and get the ball out of the big men’s hands, especially Tim, and get back to your guy and keep them at bay.”

Coach Phil Jackson is normally reluctant to double-team. The Lakers did not send help too often against power forwards Rasheed Wallace and Chris Webber during the first two rounds of the playoffs. But, as Horace Grant said, Duncan is like both of them combined into one. So as the late Notorious B.I.G. would say, things done changed.

“That’s what the playoffs are about,” Brian Shaw said. “You have to make adjustments and take what’s given to you. Tonight we did a good job all around, and playing their pick-and-rolls.”

Grant and Horry played well against Duncan, but the Lakers were helping throughout the course of the game. Sometimes Derek Fisher or Rick Fox would simply sag off their man and take a few steps toward Duncan when he had the ball. Other times they would run at him and steal it from him.

“We were just trying to take away Duncan’s space,” assistant coach Jim Cleamons said. “It’s not really a double-team, we just wanted to make sure we’re throwing bodies in his way just to destroy his rhythm. That’s all we’re trying to do.”

Jackson was so adamant about following the strategy that one time he yelled at Shaw for not executing it, even though everything else was going quite smoothly for the Lakers.

“He wanted me to get down there in Duncan’s lap quicker than I was,” Shaw said.

Shaw’s concern was allowing his man to shoot an open three-pointer; the Spurs made 42% of their threes in the playoffs. But they didn’t have too many wide-open looks Saturday, and they connected on only five of 15.

Duncan’s numbers wound up looking very Duncan-like: 28 points, 14 rebounds, six assists and five blocked shots. But the Lakers also harassed him into committing seven turnovers. And the box score doesn’t reveal that he missed nine of 11 shots in the middle of the game.

Meanwhile, the Lakers did a great job of denying passes into the post. Grant had three steals. O’Neal had two.

“We helped well, just tipping the ball, getting the ball back,” Jackson said. “Those little things were frustrating [to the Spurs], I think.”

Bryant’s lone steal, in which he deflected a pass near the sideline, managed to stay inbounds and went the other way for a dunk, was so impressive that Jackson jumped out of his seat and clapped.

Another Laker stat worth applauding was their rebounding: a 49-40 edge. Bryant had 10 (as if his 45 points weren’t enough), Horry had nine and even Fisher had seven, showing no fear of the 7-footers.

“It’s going to be a physical series,” Fisher said. “My body can feel it as we stand here right now. But those big guys are really active in there for them on the offensive and defensive end. We can’t leave our big guys down there by themselves. Kobe and I and the guards and the perimeter players have to be really active.”

The word “active” kept coming out of the Lakers’ mouths. Jackson thought his team looked fresh after six days of rest, so he played his top seven players for heavy minutes. He also relied on the fact that this game was televised on NBC, which always means longer halftimes, longer timeouts and more rest opportunities.

Monday’s game is on TNT, which means two things: They’d better send reinforcements to the Alamo because Charles Barkley is coming to town; and the breaks won’t be quite as long. Also the Lakers will have had only one day of rest.

Surely, San Antonio will add a few wrinkles to its offense, and devise a way to get the ball out of Bryant’s hands. Saturday’s advantage went to the Lakers.

“Tonight, the strategy worked,” Shaw said.

The Spurs should have seen it coming. It was their own plan, turned against them.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address:

ja.adande@latimes.com