No Drama for Lakers

The Lakers steadied themselves, and Michael Jordan never came.

They peeked into the shadows at the end of the Washington Wizard bench, and Michael Jordan never rose.

They saved their legs and their minds and if he were ready, then so they hoped to be. He was not, however, and they won, 113-93, without a great effort on Tuesday night at MCI Center, where Jordan scored two points in 12 minutes, circumstance and injury causing the lowest totals of an astonishing career.

“It was, I mean, it didn’t seem like he had the lift, or a lot of energy, tonight,” said Laker forward Devean George, who defended Jordan. “He was dragging his leg, it looked like.

“I ain’t going to take credit. I caught him when he was on his downfall.”

Two weeks out of knee surgery but four days after putting 34 points on the Milwaukee Bucks, Jordan missed four of five shots, all in the second quarter. He did not play in the second half, as the Laker lead grew to 25 points in the third quarter, and to 28 in the fourth.

Afterward, Jordan shrugged at the loss, at his own dismal numbers, at the kind of game once thought impossible, in any circumstance. Coach Doug Collins had asked him at halftime to consider resting if the Wizards, who played the first of four games in five nights and remain playoff eligible, did not draw close to the Lakers, and Jordan agreed.

“I’m not chasing anything,” he said. “I’m not chasing stats.”

He added, “I had no pain,” though he played with a long black sleeve on his right leg.

It left a young and under-talented team against the Lakers, who have won six of seven games. Twenty-four hours before they would play the New Jersey Nets--and already 10 of their 21 losses have come in the second of back-to-back games--the Lakers took the big lead and the easy baskets without quarrel.

Shaquille O’Neal, free against the soft Wizard interior, scored 22 points and took 18 rebounds, matching his season high, in 31 minutes. Kobe Bryant scored eight points in the first quarter, six in the second and finished with those 14 in a light 33 minutes. Rick Fox and Derek Fisher each scored 15.

Ty Lue, the former Laker, grinned ruefully and said, “Shaq didn’t even want to play tonight, and he got 22 and 18 just going through the motions.”

He had little opposition. Jordan rode a stationary bike for half of the first quarter and then sat by the scorer’s table with Lue until 3:17 was left in the period. He did not attempt a shot until early in the second quarter, when he missed a 17-foot jumper, and then made an 18-footer nearly two minutes into the quarter, after deftly pump-faking George off the floor.

Forced into jump shots by George and Brian Shaw, Jordan scored only once.

As the minutes passed in the third quarter, and when the lanky, elegant figure crossed his arms and stretched his legs ahead of him, it became clear he would let this one go.

“I hadn’t seen him since he had the operation,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “It looked to me like he wasn’t as strong ... as he’d like to be. I’m not going to judge anything from one night. Some nights are just that way.”

They never were before, of course, but this is different, and the Lakers, finally, were grateful. They remained two losses behind the Pacific Division- and Western Conference-leading Sacramento Kings, who beat the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night with similar authority.

No matter the result of the regular season, Jordan said, he knew the favorite when he saw it.

The Lakers are attempting to become the fifth team to three-peat, the first since Jordan’s Chicago Bulls did it twice in the last decade.

“I’m a firm believer [the Lakers] are the best team until they get beat,” he said. “Until you can win in June, you can’t knock the king off the hill.”

Tuesday ended an odd period for Jackson, who coached against and through Scottie Pippen and Jordan, the foundation of six championships in Chicago, in the course of five days.

His emotions, Jackson said, were alike. But, Pippen was a more difficult coaching assignment, given his attention to the details on the floor.

“It’s very similar,” he said. “Scottie’s a little more tuned in and ... disruptive. But, that’s the nature of who he is ... as a freelancer.”

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Wild West

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