Lakers Stop Clippers Cold

For the Clippers, it might always be about validation.

The Lakers think more in terms of something around 65 victories, against whomever, whenever, enough to take an extra home-court game well into June.

It is a Laker town, broken up occasionally by Clipper home games in the building they share, but not all of them.

And, it’s a Shaq town. A Kobe town. A place to spend their winters, to wade through their regular seasons, to hang their championship banners.

A crowd of 20,316, second largest in franchise history, came to Staples Center on Tuesday night. The loudest cheers were for the Clippers. The last ones were for the Lakers, 98-93 winners, somewhat uncomfortably.

In an end-to-end game that saw the Lakers outrebounded, 57-39, Shaquille O’Neal had 22 points and 11 rebounds, and Kobe Bryant had 25 points and 12 assists, matching his career high. Elton Brand had 22 points and 19 rebounds, and Darius Miles and Sean Rooks scored 16. The Clippers missed 14 of 15 three-point shots.

The Lakers’ last two opponents, beginning with Sacramento on Sunday, are a combined two for 34 from the arc.

“We’re just accumulating wins until we get better,” O’Neal said.

The Clippers outscored the Lakers, 17-8, in the final five minutes. Lindsey Hunter missed six free throws in a 30-second span, starting with 1:18 remaining, and finally he was benched in favor of Brian Shaw. Shaw was four for four at the line down the stretch.

Convinced they’d start their three-peat quest slowly, the Lakers have opened their season with nine wins in 10 games. The Clippers--very quick and very game but unable to contain the Lakers’ best two players--have lost 17 of 18 to the Lakers.

Most important, everybody’s shorts looked short enough.

“We’re playing terrible,” Laker forward Rick Fox said. “That’s a real pessimistic doomsayer. I just know where we’ve been in this offense. Right now, we’ve got to find our way through this new team. More than anything, we don’t give it a chance.”

Fox even blamed the rebounding problems on an offense that is supposed to stress defensive balance and offensive rebounding position.

“It’s all a respect level with us,” he said. “If we feel challenged, we play the game we should play.”

Bryant had assists Nos. 10 and 11 in the Lakers’ first two possessions of the fourth quarter. He flipped a pass to Robert Horry for a dunk and a three-point play, then skirted the baseline and flung a pass to Devean George, who made a 15-footer. The Lakers led, 82-66.

Along the way, O’Neal enlivened the place.

Down the middle of the floor came the big man, early in the third quarter, dribbling to his ear, having left behind Michael Olowokandi, and Elton Brand, and one by one the rest of the Clippers fell away.

In six dribbles he had covered the distance from beneath one basket to the top of the opposite free-throw line, his eyes wide, his expression as perfectly Magic Johnson as he could muster.

He lifted his dribble, took his two steps through the lane and dunked, as Eric Piatkowski, the final Clipper, scampered away.

O’Neal shimmied his shoulders, and Lakers laughed and pounded their hands together, both at O’Neal’s dexterity and his absolute joy with it. They led, 61-48.

O’Neal took a technical foul five minutes into the first quarter, apparently for staring.

At the end of a fastbreak, he dunked over Olowokandi. As he turned to return to the defensive end, O’Neal looked over his left shoulder and glared at Olowokandi, or the touchy referee, Gary Benson.

On the next Laker possession, O’Neal made a 12-foot jump hook over Olowokandi. On his way up the floor, O’Neal put his hand over his eyes, so as not to be accused of looking, you know, mean, again.

O’Neal had 10 points and five rebounds in the first eight minutes, and the Lakers took a 10-point lead, and the early Clipper crowd hopefulness seemed lost in all the dunks and three-pointers.

Then came the Clippers. They rebounded, and Darius Miles scraped the ceiling with the basketball on a loud second-quarter dunk, and they rebounded.

By halftime, the Clippers had outrebounded the Lakers, 34-19, and 17-5 on offensive rebounds alone. All those second chances allowed the Clippers 53 first-half shots.

That was their good news. Their bad news: they made only 20, and missed all seven from behind the arc.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

TALE OF ONE CITY

Comparing the two-time champion Lakers to the Clippers:

LAKERS AND CLIPPERS

9-1 RECORD 5-6

27.4 AVERAGE AGE 24.6

NBA AVERAGE AGE: 27.8

28.0 STARTERS’ AGE 25.6

101.0 POINTS PG 100.9

92.9 PPG ALLOWED 99.6