George Knows How to Fill Role

For the first time this season, a Laker had one shot that could make the difference between winning and losing -- and that Laker was Devean George.

You could say it fit the theme of the night, that when a bunch of no-names on the Utah Jazz almost handed the mighty Lakers their first home loss it was the least-recognizable name among the Laker regular starters who bailed them out. But it wouldn’t be fair to lump George in with the likes of Ben Hanglogten and Aleksandar Pavlovic, when he has been playing at a level that fits right in with Karl Malone and Gary Payton.

George is averaging 10.8 points a game, sometimes scoring more than Payton or Malone or even Kobe Bryant or Shaquille O’Neal, and sometimes scoring less. On most nights he’s doing his job of keeping the opposing defenses honest.

And when he was called upon to bail the Lakers out of a potentially embarrassing collapse Sunday, after Payton drove the lane and fired a pass out to him, George delivered a three-pointer with 24.9 seconds remaining that all but gave the Lakers a 94-92 victory.

“Call me Rob,” said George, alluding to former Laker big-shot specialist Robert Horry.

Actually, just make sure once and for all that you pronounce George’s first name correctly (it rhymes with “win.”)

The whole concept of the Fantastic Four (or the “Fantizzle Fizzle,” as O’Neal called it, translated into Snoop Dogg-speak) would fall apart if George’s man was free to leave him and double on whomever he pleased. There was some doubt raised here and elsewhere about the ability of George, a career 39% shooter, to meet the challenge.

So far he’s shooting above 50% and making 43% of his three-pointers, both figures good enough to rank in the NBA’s top 20.

“I’ve been comfortable shooting them,” George said. “You were one of those persons wondering if I could make ‘em or not. To answer your question, yeah, I’ve been making them. It’s just something I expected.

“Gary’s a slasher, he can get to the hole. If they stay out to the shooters, he’s going to get layups. If they collapse in, we’re going to all shoot open jump shots. Simple.”

Basic basketball. George executed the concept well enough in 2001-02 and averaged 7.1 points on 41% shooting. He made 66 three-pointers that season, developed a nice give-and-go routine with O’Neal and played well enough to get a four-year contract worth more than $18 million from the Lakers. But his numbers dipped slightly last season.

They needed more out of George this season. For one thing, Rick Fox’s foot surgery probably would keep him out for the first half of the season.

With the additions of Payton and Malone, George realized he had a role, even if it required nothing more than satisfying the rules of the game.

“They’re great players, but they need one more person on the court,” George said near the end of preseason. “There needs to be five guys out there on the team.”

Now he has proven that he deserves to be out there, he isn’t simply taking up space. And Fox is coming to terms with the realization that he probably won’t be starting once he comes back (in January at the earliest).

The other thing George has done well is bear the brunt of all the criticism when things go wrong. There’s only so much yelling a coach is going to do at his all-stars. Coaches have to vent at somebody, so when a defensive breakdown occurs it’s going to be George -- not O’Neal or Bryant or Payton or Malone -- who is most likely to feel Jackson’s wrath. And that usually occurs after George gets an earful from his teammates on his way to the bench.

In fact, George even violated Jackson’s orders on the eventual game-winning shot.

Jackson didn’t like what he saw developing on the play, so he ordered a timeout.

“I didn’t hear him,” said George, even though he was near the Laker bench when Jackson was yelling. “I was caught up in the game and watching what was going on.

“I’m glad I didn’t call it.”

Jackson said he didn’t chastise George for not calling the timeout and wouldn’t have chastised him even if he missed.

Yeah, right. He would light into George for leaving a shoelace untied.

George hasn’t hung his head, and he showed Sunday that he didn’t mind having the pressure of being blamed for the loss.

“It just kind of happened,” he said of his game-winning shot. “It always happens like that. When GP drives, they just kind of collapse and he’s got good vision. So he kicks it out to shooters.”The important thing was Payton had enough confidence to deliver the ball to George.

“He’s been hitting shots,” Payton said. After George knocked down the biggest shot any Laker has taken this season, he addressed the media, then stepped off toward the door.

Safe to say, he’s answered all of the questions.

*

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com.