Lakers Have Stars Aligned

The Lakers could lug around their regular-season motivation in their change pockets, so insignificant is their collective drive from July to April.

But every so often, a game, an opponent, a moment, pulls at their attention.

So inspired by the deeds and words of the Portland Trail Blazers, so displeased by their recent play, and perhaps prodded by the approaching playoffs, the Lakers played a game Friday night that approached their June potential.

They limited the Trail Blazers to four fourth-quarter field goals and won, 91-79, at Staples Center, where Shaquille O’Neal scored 34 points and took 14 rebounds, Kobe Bryant scored 34 points and took seven rebounds, and Samaki Walker had a season-high 17 rebounds.

Scottie Pippen missed 16 of 18 field-goal attempts, most without a defender in sight; the Trail Blazers, who played without leading scorer Rasheed Wallace, missed 28 of their final 36 shots.

O’Neal outscored the Trail Blazers, 12-11, in the last quarter, despite taking a frightening fall over a courtside seat. He suffered a cut thumb, nothing serious, but stayed down for a while.

“You have to do a full body check,” he said. “I took five seconds. ‘OK, toes don’t hurt, knees, back, neck ... I’m OK.’”

After some games spent dragging his arthritic toe behind him, O’Neal looked more like himself, however, like the MVP in a league otherwise stocked with skinny-shouldered small forwards.

With their 51st victory, the Lakers stayed two losses behind the Sacramento Kings, who won earlier in Charlotte and lead the Pacific Division and Western Conference by 11/2 games.

Afterward, O’Neal walked slowly, with a slight limp, to his car.

“I’m not going to blame it on my toe, even though it is my toe,” he said. “Deep down, in the back of my mind, I know it’s my toe. I’m a step slow. But I’m still the same guy. I’m not rebounding like I should. I’m not blocking shots like I should. But I’m the same guy. I can’t wait until the playoffs start. We’re on a mission for No. 3.”

Bryant and O’Neal started the fourth quarter, a variation from Phil Jackson’s recent philosophy, because the Lakers had only a three-point lead, and perhaps because Bryant had fallen out of rhythm after a lengthy second-quarter rest.

Early in the quarter, Pippen made a three-pointer to bring the Trail Blazers to within 73-71. It was his first field goal after 12 consecutive misses, a streak that moved the Staples Center crowd to derisively beg him to shoot.

The Lakers scored 12 of the next 14 points. O’Neal had seven of them and the Trail Blazers, like the Kings on Sunday, went away. The Lakers won in Sacramento with as taut a game as they’d played in weeks, because they like to beat the Kings. Along come the Trail Blazers, with their “Kobe stopper” and 18 wins in 21 games and their second-half rise in the Pacific Division standings, all enough to catch the Lakers’ eye, and so the Lakers’ effort.

“It amazes me,” Jackson said. “The importance of these games, the importance of putting yourself out for a game, and preparing. Those three things are a combination of things that make us play better against teams of a higher quality.”

Still, Jackson said, as he did last year before an eight-game winning streak flung them into the playoffs, “We have to put strings [of wins] together, though. I still think we need to get a string of games together in the win column to feel like we have momentum. I’d still like to see that.”

Ruben Patterson, self-proclaimed Kobe stopper, scored six points in 19 minutes, did a reasonable job on Bryant, and then had no interest in playing along with the Lakers-are-OK theme.

“I think we can beat those guys,” he said. “I think we can beat the Lakers. I wouldn’t mind seeing them in the first round. I’m not scared of them. They’re not that good.”

The Lakers shrug at Patterson’s joy with himself, but they watch

O’Neal would not take his hand.

Patterson reached again, this time with both hands, and grabbed O’Neal by the wrist. And then he pulled. Hard.

O’Neal wouldn’t help, and Patterson wound up dragging O’Neal like a mop through the lane, while everyone laughed at his attempt to cozy up.

Finally, with the whole thing becoming very uncomfortable, and Bryant on the bench holding a towel to his face to hide his smirk, Robert Horry leaned over and helped O’Neal to his feet.