An Ill Wind for Lakers

When the confetti fell and Chris Webber raised his arms for the point he scored in the final nine minutes and the lion mascot danced, Kobe Bryant stood at midcourt, smiling.

Shaquille O’Neal touched Bryant’s palm with his.

The Lakers lost Monday night, in part because the Sacramento Kings were a little better, in part because Bryant played in the throes of food poisoning, in part because Shaquille O’Neal’s 35 points were not quite enough.

Sacramento’s victory was 96-90 at Arco Arena, tying the best-of-seven Western Conference finals at 1-1. Game 3 is Friday at Staples Center.

Bryant and O’Neal gathered a few of their teammates together on the way off the floor. They pulled on each other’s jerseys, and nodded at what they had missed, the chance they had lost.

“Obviously, if I was healthy I could have played a lot better,” said Bryant, who was up all Sunday night, sucked in three liters of intravenous fluids, and then scored 22 points in 40 minutes. “But that’s not really the point. They played better than we did. We’re just going to have to live with it.”

That is what the Lakers talked about in that moment on the floor, after their first road defeat in 13 playoff games. Not the referees who so angered O’Neal and Coach Phil Jackson, among others. Not the shots that did not fall at the end, when the Kings lost a lot of a 15-point lead. Moving on.

“We lost, now let’s go home and take care of business on Friday,” Bryant said. “We had opportunities. We missed some wide-open shots in crucial situations, shots that normally fall for us.”

Webber scored 21 points and Mike Bibby scored 20, including a three-pointer from the top that gave the Kings a 92-82 lead with less than three minutes remaining. The Lakers missed six of their last seven field-goal attempts, including two three-pointers--by Rick Fox and Derek Fisher--inside the final 10 seconds.

The Lakers did not lead in the second half, which began with the Kings ahead, 52-50. They scored 17 points in the third quarter, which gave the Kings enough of a cushion to survive their now usual fourth-quarter collapse.

There were two statistics that surely would grab Jackson. The Lakers missed 16 of 19 three-point attempts. And the Kings shot 23 free throws in the first half, to the Lakers’ five. The officials closed the gap a bit by the end, but the Lakers stomped and complained about it for nearly 48 minutes.

“If the outcome is going to be predicted WWF style,” O’Neal said of the professional wrestling league, “let me know so I’m not out their busting my butt for nothing. Just let me know, so I can be in on it.”

He smiled, but not much.

“Those who understand the game know what really went on,” O’Neal said. “We had a couple of chances to win. We just missed a couple of shots. So, we feel good about that. In order to beat us, you have to beat us fair and square. There is only one way to beat us. It starts with a C and ends with a T.”

Asked if he meant “cheat,” O’Neal said, “Don’t put words in my mouth.”

In the fourth quarter, with the deficit large and the crowd loud, Bryant was on the bench, several seats to the right of Jackson, tucked between Mitch Richmond and Samaki Walker.

He sucked on the water bottle with the yellow sweat band wrapped around it, a white towel draped over his shoulders. He returned with 3:39 left, with the King lead seven points, a bit too much for him and his wrung-out body.

“In certain spurts I had a lot of energy, and in some I didn’t,” Bryant said. “I just tried to pace myself for three quarters, and then hopefully we’d get within striking distance. Then, the energy I’d saved up, I’d be able to put it all out when the game was on the line. But, unfortunately, we weren’t able to get to that point.”

The Lakers lacked the energy they had in Game 1, and the Kings brought more of the fight many expected of them before the series.

The Lakers entered the fourth quarter behind by nine points, because they scored those 17 in the third, by which time they had attempted 19 fewer free throws than the Kings.

Bobby Jackson scored on a layup to start the fourth, so the deficit was 11. Five minutes into the quarter, Bryant was on the bench and the deficit was 12.

By the time Bryant returned, the Lakers, heading for their third loss in 27 playoff games, already had gotten into the habit of going to O’Neal. He made 15 of 27 attempts. Everyone else made 21 of 62. Bryant was nine for 21.

“Shaq was rolling,” said Robert Horry, who took a career playoff-high 20 rebounds. “He was doing the work down there. It wasn’t that Kobe was sick. He looked plenty good to me. [Usually, the fourth] is his quarter. But, Shaq was doing his thing. So why take over?”

Bryant lacked some of his usual charisma, but little of his game. He scored nine points in the first quarter, on eight shots, one a flying tomahawk dunk on a fastbreak.

His shoulders sagged some, and his mouth hung open.

He had a cup or a bottle to his mouth in almost every down moment, and frequently encouraged Devean George from beneath heavy eyelids.

He didn’t smile a lot, when Slamson, the Kings’ lion mascot, bonked him with his big head, or when the guy behind the Laker bench held up the sign that recommended the cheeseburger and cheesecake.

When he left the floor, he often had Dr. Steve Lombardo in his ear, and he often nodded, as if to say he was OK.

He had two points in the second quarter, when he started to hit the front of the rim with his jump shots. He made the Lakers’ last field goal--the three-pointer that brought them to within 93-90 with 12.5 seconds left.

O’Neal was assessed three personal fouls in 16 minutes in the first half, two of them on the offensive end, once when Vlade Divac fell and once when Scot Pollard staggered backward.

Jackson received a technical foul for arguing the second, with 4:49 left in the half, and O’Neal left the floor muttering at the referees.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Lack of Support

With Kobe Bryant ailing for Game 2 against the Kings, the Lakers needed to get increased scoring from players other than Shaquille O’Neal. They didn’t.

*--* GAME 1 GAME 2 Lakers Win, Lakers Lose, 106-99 96-90 FG Made-Att Pct Points FG Made-Att Pct Points Bryant-O’ 23-47 489 56 24-48 500 57 Neal Other 19-39 487 50 12-41 293 33 Lakers

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