These Finally Are Lakers You Remember

Kobe Bryant was correct. The Lakers have arrived at the playoff party. Guess they were just fashionably late.

As the citizens of Lakerland fretted over his team’s first loss of the postseason, Bryant assured everyone that “This is where the fun starts.”

Right on target. Just like every one of Bryant’s five shots in the fourth quarter, when the Lakers closed out a 99-89 victory in an exciting, dramatic, contentious, well-played Game 3.

You wanted a solid 48-minute effort from the Lakers? Got it.

Defensive stops, execution on offense, hustle, spirit.

Yep, uh-huh, yeah, check.

All it took were a few shaky outings, a defeat at home and the prospect of falling behind in this series at the noisy, charged-up Alamodome.

These are your Lakers. They’re like your kid who stays away for hours without calling. You’re furious with them, but you’re sure happy to see them come home.

The Lakers were the Lakers again. They dominated the points in the paint category, 60-46. They outrebounded the Spurs, 48-34. They were patient and poised.

They were everything they hadn’t been for two weeks.

“We try to make it hard for ourselves,” Robert Horry said. “When it’s time to focus, we can focus and do the things that we need to do to get a win.”

And, as an added bonus, there was entertainment value.

I’d been going through series envy, watching Dallas and Sacramento light up the scoreboard as they race each other up and down the court in the other Western Conference semifinal. That matchup is so fun, Laker assistant coach Frank Hamblen said: “I’m glad we’re not playing on the same nights, so I can watch it.”

This one was worth keeping on the TiVo. Especially the first half.

The Lakers played a turnover-free first two quarters (while the Spurs had only four). The teams put a combined 105 points on the board midway through, with each shooting a respectable 47%.

And it wasn’t as if nobody put a hand in someone’s face.

San Antonio’s defense made the Laker offense as laborious a process as passing a congressional bill. Once again, they rotated well. They sent help whenever Bryant made his forays into the lane or Shaquille O’Neal got the ball in deep.

But the Laker defense also tightened, beginning in the second quarter. They were deflecting passes and closing out on shooters.

One of their best stops came when Horry and Brian Shaw double-teamed Duncan on the baseline and Horry stole the ball. It came with the Lakers clinging to a one-point lead in the fourth quarter, and it led to a Bryant field goal from the lane on the other end.

The Lakers forced four turnovers and held the Spurs to 36% shooting in the fourth quarter, when the Lakers shot 56%.

If the Lakers were proud, they also looked beat up.

O’Neal was wincing every time he came to the bench in the second half, his re-sprained ankle overriding all the other cuts and arthritic digits bothering him. Horry had a cut lip. Derek Fisher was soaking his feet in a tub of ice afterward, part of the aching Lakers.

“This time of year, you have to expect that,” Fisher said. “The teams that can hold it together and not continue to completely rely on your physical talents all the time. That’s the next area for us, to continue to build rhythm within our system and doing things mentally. Obviously, physically we’re very gifted. But we have to play smarter upstairs, and we can have more games like we did tonight.”

Perhaps they’re finally getting it, that they can’t just show up and expect a ‘W’.

They’re accepting their frailties, but not fearing them or using them as an excuse. They’re playing through them.

Bryant, who had his knee kicked and bruised in Game 1, played through his early shooting woes Friday night.

He shot two for seven in the first quarter, but finished 15 for 31.

That decent percentage was thanks to that perfect fourth quarter, when Spur Coach Gregg Popovich said his team “did everything we could do” to stop him.

“He made some great shots,” Popovich said.

After his final shot, a jumper in the lane that gave the Lakers a 10-point lead with 1:10 remaining and forced the Spurs to take a timeout, I was expecting Bryant to turn to the crowd and flex, the way he did when he made that killer three-pointer in Game 2 here last year.

But he calmly went to the bench and celebrated with his teammates.

“Sometimes when you become too emotionally involved in the game you can overlook little details,” said Bryant, who also remembered to grab six rebounds, hand out six assists and commit only one turnover.

There was the feeling before the game that this would be Bryant’s time. He thrives on road games and loves stepping up when O’Neal is hobbling.

“I love playing on the road,” Bryant said. “I really do. It excites me. Especially here. Places like here and Sacramento. It really gets my juices going.”

He scored 73 points in the two playoff games at the Alamodome last year, and 84 at the two playoff games in Arco Arena.

And he had 31 on this night, when the Lakers were back to their old selves, finally worthy of their rings, finally worth watching.