Rout of This World

By TIM BROWN

May 26, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Pushed by momentum, pulled by their conviction in it, the Lakers were stronger still on Friday night, when Shaquille O’Neal scattered the San Antonio Spurs with dunks, and then the confetti fell and the music played, and everyone danced off to Sunday’s Game 4.

Gathering resolve and composure in an 18-game winning streak that includes their first 10 games of the postseason, the Lakers have become ruthless in the playoffs. They beat the Spurs, 111-72, at Staples Center, and so lead the best-of-seven Western Conference finals, 3-0, shoving the Spurs to the brink of radical, inglorious elimination. The Lakers can clinch their second consecutive berth in the NBA finals with a win Sunday at Staples Center.

Kobe Bryant scored 36 points, many spectacularly, and had nine rebounds and eight assists, and O’Neal rose up over the Twin Towers David Robinson and Tim Duncan to score 35 points and take 17 rebounds.

Needing a massive effort and instead being outplayed, the Spurs were outrebounded, 63-35, and scored eight fourth-quarter points. For a moment, the moment Coach Phil Jackson allows them, the Lakers reveled in the enormity of the victory.

“We’re riding momentum just playing the way we’ve been playing,” Laker guard Brian Shaw said. “At the same time, we’re stuck in the moment. Phil told us this was the game of the series.”

Even as the NBA playoffs inched through handfuls of days off, and as the winning streak crawled across eight weeks, Jackson urged the Lakers to forget about yesterday and ignore tomorrow.

They are nearly three full rounds into the postseason and haven’t lost, and repeating their championship happens to be running neck and neck with the growing expectation that they win it in exactly 15 games.

“We’re just in a rhythm,” Bryant said. “That’s all it is. We’re just in a flow. It’s togetherness.”

For the first time in a long and sometimes arduous season, the Lakers are not being drawn along by just O’Neal or only Bryant, or both. The Lakers’ total game found them just in time to save them from themselves, in time to defend their championship with dignity, and in that spirit they have pounded the Spurs.

“It’s always fun when you win,” Bryant said. “We’re playing really, really well.”

The rubber match of the last two champions appears instead to be a victory lap for the Lakers; no team has returned from a three-game deficit to advance.

“It’s become greater than Shaquille,” Laker forward Rick Fox said. “It’s become greater than Kobe, greater than any effort by one or two people. I’ve never seen it before.

“It’s as though we’re starting to round into the team we thought we’d be. When it’s done, whenever it’s done, even in a championship, I think I’ll be sad it all came to an end.”

Fox scored 11 points and Derek Fisher, the guard who returned from a broken foot to revitalize the Lakers, scored 13. He had one turnover, and has two in the series.

Robinson, chided between Games 2 and 3 for failing to deliver on offense, scored 24 points, most on mid-range jumpers. But, his insistence on finding his game appeared to throw off Duncan, who missed 11 of 14 shots and scored nine points.

The Spurs trudged off the floor 48 game minutes from being swept, the same indignity they dealt the Lakers two seasons ago, on the way to their championship. No Laker guaranteed a sweep, not even Ron Harper, who eulogized the Sacramento Kings in Sacramento, but they all sensed the Spurs’ dread.

Beneath the weight of O’Neal and Bryant and the relentless Super Friends, San Antonio managed 28 second-half points. Its vaunted defense allowed 92 shots, and a 47.8 shooting percentage.

“Maybe they’re thinking this is our destiny, that maybe that team is supposed to win, and maybe they think it’s time not to get hurt and take it home for the summer,” Laker forward Robert Horry said. With three minutes remaining, Bryant spread his arms and raised them twice, left the floor and hugged O’Neal, among others. O’Neal had left two minutes before, to another standing ovation and his Superman theme. He rolled his left ankle in the waning minutes, favored it briefly, and said later it would not bother him in Game 4.

Surrounded for two games in San Antonio by matching 7-footers, O’Neal shook out of his offensive slump and made 16 of 23 attempts. Bryant made 14 of 27 shots, one of them a dazzling reverse dunk to start the fourth quarter.

Asked if the series were done, Bryant smiled and said, “I hope so. We’ll find out Sunday.”

For expanded coverage of the Laker-Spur series, including photo galleries and postgame interviews, please visit the Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/nbaplayoffs.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

BY THE NUMBERS

18 Consecutive victories by the Lakers--the third longest streak by the team. The 1971-72 team had a record 33-game winning streak, the 1999-2000 team won 19 in a row.

11 Consecutive victories by the Lakers in the playoffs, including last year. The Lakers won an NBA-record 13 consecutive playoff games in 1988 and 1989.

39 Lakers’ margin of victory Friday--the largest in the playoffs by the team since a 47-point win (135-88) over San Antonio on April 17, 1986.

56 Lakers’ largest margin of victory in the playoffs with the franchise in L.A. on April 21, 1973 against Golden State (126-70).

35.6 Shaquille O’Neal’s scoring average at home in this year’s playoffs.

23.6 O’Neal’s scoring average on the road in this year’s playoffs.

89.9 Points per game given up in the playoffs by the Lakers.

97.2 Points per game given up in the regular season by the Lakers.

Home Cooking

Shaquille O’Neal’s key statistics on the road and at home in playoffs:

*--*

Road Home (5 Games) (5 Games) Pts Per Game 23.6 35.6 FG Made-Att. 45-89 72-116 FG Pct. .505 .621 FT Made-Att. 28-51 34-65 FT Pct. .549 .523 Reb. Per Game 13.6 18.0

*--*

THE SERIES

Best of seven; Lakers lead, 3-0

Game 1

Lakers 104, San Antonio 90

Game 2

Lakers 88, San Antonio 81

Game 3

Lakers 111, San Antonio 72

Game 4 -- Sunday

at Lakers, 2:30 p.m., Ch. 4

Game 5 -- Tuesday*