Win Fits to a 'T'

By TIM BROWN

May 22, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SAN ANTONIO —

In a near-empty corridor, beside a bus that would take them all away, a veteran of too many NBA wars to recall them all made a tight fist that was to represent the Lakers.

An hour before, the Lakers had won an impossibly contested basketball game, one that left a teammate bloodied and another with an aching jaw, that left the San Antonio Spurs battered if not quite emotionally spent, but close, and that left the Lakers fairly amazed at what they had just done.

They defeated the Spurs, 88-81, Monday night at the Alamodome and so took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals. The series resumes Friday night at Staples Center.

In the harshest of places, the Lakers beat the Spurs with defense, the Spurs’ game. They beat them by sustaining unusual exertion, which has become their signature in a 17-game winning streak, the last nine in the playoffs, and they beat them with Coach Phil Jackson in the locker room, ejected with nearly 16 minutes remaining.

“We’ve matured,” Laker forward Rick Fox said, “to a point where we maintained our composure. Outside of Phil.”

Kobe Bryant scored 28 points, including the knock-out three-pointer, and the Lakers overcame deficits of 14 points in the second quarter and 10 in the third quarter to draw within a weekend at home of ending the series in four games, their third consecutive sweep to start their title defense.

Horace Grant unclenched his fist and shook his head. He’d won three championships, the first a decade ago in Chicago, a dynasty ago, and still hadn’t seen something like this, 12 players so divided and then so together, all in the same spring.

“For us to come out and keep our poise and not get too upset at a few calls that didn’t go our way, I mean, oh wow,” the Laker power forward said. “We figured it was going to be a war. It was.”

They agreed this might have ended in unglamorous defeat two months ago, when the hard things would have gone undone. They’ve changed.

“They’re as good a defensive team as we are,” Spur Coach Gregg Popovich said, wearily.

The Lakers outscored the Spurs, 13-5, to end the game, and held them to four-for-15 shooting in the third quarter and three-for-15 shooting in the fourth. San Antonio forward Tim Duncan scored 40 points, but was the only regular who made even half of his shots, and made only two field goals in the fourth quarter, hounded as he was by Robert Horry. Horry suffered a bloody nose along the way, to match Fox’s swollen jaw.

“We stayed solid against overwhelming odds,” Jackson said. “It’s an incredible task to come in and win one, much less two.”

He added, “This series is long from over,” a sentiment echoed by Duncan.

“We’re not packing it in and going home,” he said. “We’re going to L.A. to win.”

Down the stretch, when a taut game teased a frantic crowd on each possession, Shaquille O’Neal took a hard pass from Bryant and made a layup, giving the Lakers an 82-78 lead with 1:53 remaining. Spur guard Terry Porter missed a three-point attempt 20 seconds later, and on the following possession Bryant set up at the top of the key. He took a pass from O’Neal and, from the very same spot where he finished the Spurs in Game 1, Bryant made a three that took the lead to 85-78. Derek Fisher, who scored 16 points, made all four of his three-point attempts, the last with 41 seconds left. O’Neal, awash in centers and forwards, had 19 points and 14 rebounds.

“I don’t know if disappointment and frustration describes the situation,” Spur guard Avery Johnson said. “To build up this much during the regular season and lose two games in a row in the Western Conference finals is not a good feeling.”

Playing with the resilience of seven weeks of victories, the Lakers’ winning streak lived for a 49th day, from April 3 through Monday night, 17 victories that took them from reasonable doubt to ultimate expectation, to a road sweep of the first two games of the conference finals.

“Looky here, man,” said Grant, who played 22 minutes through the haze of a heavy cold, “I’m like a little kid right now emotionally with this team, the way we’ve come together.”

The Lakers scored 28 points in a third quarter played as desperately as any in the postseason. Behind by 10 points midway through the quarter, they scored 18 of the last 29 points, five each by O’Neal and Fisher. As a result, they went to the fourth quarter behind, 67-66, and led by a point when O’Neal made an eight-foot jump hook.

Exasperated that Bryant penetrated with such ease in Game 1, Popovich made fundamental defensive changes in Game 2 that tested Bryant’s jumper.

Duncan, and not David Robinson, started on O’Neal. Robinson, then, played Grant and Horry softly and eyed Bryant. If Bryant took a step toward penetration, Robinson met him near the rim. Bryant had six assists, and then took over in the fourth quarter anyway, putting the Spurs in a very difficult spot. Only two teams have won a seven-game series after losing the first two at home.

“Wounded animals are even more dangerous,” Bryant said. The Lakers would know.

For expanded coverage of the Laker-Spur series, please visit The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/nbaplayoffs

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Streak

The Lakers’ 17-game winning streak (the last nine games are in playoffs):

*--*

Date Opponent Score April 3 at Utah 96-88 April 5 at Chicago 100-88 April 6 at Boston 100-96 April 8 at Minnesota 104-99 April 10 Phoenix 106-80 April 12 Minnesota 119-102 April 15 Portland 105-100 April 17 Denver 108-91 April 22 Portland 106-93 April 26 Portland 106-88 April 29 at Portland 99-86 May 6 Sacramento 108-105 May 8 Sacramento 96-90 May 11 at Sacramento 103-81 May 13 at Sacramento 119-113 May 19 at San Antonio 104-90 May 21 at San Antonio 88-81

*--*

LONGEST 2000-01 STREAKS

17--LAKERS (current)

11--Minnesota

10--Philadelphia, Portland

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE SERIES

Best of seven; Lakers lead, 2-0

Game 1

Lakers 104, San Antonio 90

Game 2

Lakers 88, San Antonio 81