Is Latest Start Fresh, or False?

By Tim Brown

Dec. 16, 2002 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Then, they all breathed a little.

The Laker season got this much better -- a 107-84 win against the Orlando Magic -- on Sunday night at Staples Center, before it got any worse.

They are 10-15, a record they’re learning to live with in a season where every previous reason for optimism has been nothing more than a false alarm.

They’ll go out this afternoon on a four-game trip through crunchy walks from the bus to the gym, through four chilled cities, knowing little more about their game than that it must improve, very soon.

If their determination and shooting percentage and defensive attitude progressed only an inch against the mercurial Magic, their luck leaped by a foot.

Because, while Shaquille O’Neal had 30 points and 14 rebounds and Derek Fisher had 19 points, Magic swingman Tracy McGrady scored 21 points in the first half and none in the second, thanks to a bruised back that had him limping through the corridors afterward. And, guard Mike Miller had the flu. And, Grant Hill’s foot got sore.

O’Neal, still smoldering over something or other, declined comment, as has become his custom.

The rest of the Lakers were guarded, drifting away somewhere between content with the victory and unsure what was next -- growth or regression.

“We know this isn’t going to be one game, one week or one moment that turns this around,” Fisher said.

The Lakers were less interested in the details than they were the outcome, a near wire-to-wire victory in which the Magic played without McGrady for all but a couple minutes in the second half.

Twenty-seven seconds into the fourth quarter, McGrady returned, the Magic down 13. Less than two minutes later, McGrady, having run delicately for a few possessions, left for good, the deficit then 15.

He said he had reached for a rebound and, upon returning to the floor, “somebody had their elbow right in my back.”

Partly as a result, and for a night, the Lakers got the foot off their necks. They won after losing two in a row and six of 10. They won after a painful week among themselves, when egos were tweaked and feelings bent.

Maybe that’s done. Or waiting out behind the next two-game losing streak. There’s no measuring anymore. None of them dare.

“Not yet,” Brian Shaw said. “Not until we string a few together.”

Meantime, another night, another mismatch at center, O’Neal against Shawn Kemp or Andrew DeClerq, this Olumide Oyedeji or that, didn’t matter.

O’Neal made 12 of 17 field-goal attempts, and his 14 rebounds were within one of his season high, in 36 minutes. He missed his first three free throws and made his next six, then sat beside the other starters with more than half of the fourth quarter left.

Beside Robert Horry, who iced his knees. Beside Rick Fox, who grinned easily. Beside Kobe Bryant, the sleeve on his left leg pushed down around his ankle. Beside Fisher, whose 15 points led them all at halftime, whose 19 came on 11 shots.

Bryant had an uneven game -- Phil Jackson called it “strange” -- given 21 points and eight assists but six-for-15 shooting and eight turnovers.

They had pushed the lead toward 20, and then given the ball to the second unit, a blowout at Staples for the first time since anyone could recall.

“A win,” Fox said with a sigh and a laugh. “Double digits. Our 10th win. We got out of the single digits. I wouldn’t say, ‘Merry Christmas,’ to our fans yet, but it’s a nice way to leave here.”

With three of the Magic’s preeminent players ailing, the Lakers played perhaps as they should have. They held the Magic to 34.5% shooting, they outrebounded the Magic, 52-36, and they blocked 10 shots. O’Neal was all-powerful, and they even made seven of 15 threes.

“We played a much more aggressive game tonight,” Jackson said. “We got to loose balls and were aggressive on the boards and in the lane. We had to work on our defense a little bit, we looked flat a few times, but I was pleased with the effort. I think we have something to build on, hopefully.... We have to come back and make it work, repeat the effort.”

They’ll be happy simply to repeat the result. The details, they’ll deal with later.

“Looking for that one game that turns that switch on,” Fox said, “we gave up on that.... We’re in for a long haul here.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Laker Lapses

Longest Laker losing streaks since Phil Jackson became coach:

1999-2000 (67-15)

2...3 times

2000-01 (56-26)

2...7 times

2001-02 (58-24)

3...Atlanta, at Portland, Boston

2...six times