Lakers Bored, but Avoid Crashing

As to the question of who needs Karl Malone more, the baby Utah Jazz pushed the Lakers to the final possession on an otherwise sleepy Sunday night at Staples Center, missed two frantic shots near the buzzer and generally sucked the air of superiority out of the place.

With Malone, the former Jazz/fresh Laker, suspended for a game and presumably watching from his home in Newport Beach, the Lakers gave away all of a 21-point third-quarter lead, had Devean George hit a late three-pointer, rushed back on defense and held on for a 94-92 victory.

“We got bored,” Shaquille O’Neal said. “Phil [Jackson] kept telling us, ‘Don’t get bored.’ But we did.”

While they momentarily misplaced the foot-to-neck tenacity that sustained their recent blowout wins, the Lakers are 17-3, best in the NBA. They have won nine consecutive games, 12 of their last 13 and 27 in a row in the regular season at Staples.

O’Neal had 19 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists. Kobe Bryant missed 13 of 17 shots, including six of six in the fourth quarter, but scored 19 points, nine from the free-throw line. Gary Payton, who bruised his thigh in the fourth quarter and afterward walked with a slight limp, had 15 points.

This was their first game without Malone, the 40-year-old power forward whose toughness and maturity have steadied a roster whose regular-season boredom had become legendary. The league suspended Malone for a game because he elbowed Steve Nash in the face during Thursday’s win against the Dallas Mavericks. A sign across from the Laker bench read, “PARDON KARL.”

And while they built an easy lead against the Jazz with Slava Medvedenko (15 points, two rebounds) as a starting forward, they just as easily had it fall away. Inside the last minute, O’Neal made two free throws and George took a pass from Payton 27 feet from the basket and, with 24.9 seconds remaining, gave the Lakers their two-point lead.

As the crowd gasped, cheered, groaned and then cheered again, the Jazz missed twice -- jump shots by Maurice Williams and then Raja Bell -- inside the final eight seconds. O’Neal, who narrowly missed his second career triple-double for the second time in the week, took the final rebound and burned off the tension by playfully dribbling the length of the floor.

“We kind of escaped with that one,” Jackson said.

Jerry Sloan, crusty coach of the Jazz, looked on with some bemusement, appreciating the fight some of his men took to the Lakers. Disgusted with his starting five, Sloan coached the entire fourth quarter with reserves Bell, Williams, Aleksander Pavlovic, Jarron Collins and Ben Handlogten on the floor. In the last quarter, as the Lakers attempted to sneak peeks at the names on the backs of the Jazz jerseys, Utah went from 74-60 down to 90-89 ahead.

The Jazz would be the surprise team in the Western Conference if its own division weren’t being led by the Denver Nuggets.

Malone, who missed a game for the 11th time in a 19-year career, and John Stockton are gone. To the surprise of many, it seems, Utah fielded a team anyway. The Jazz got to Los Angeles with a record of 11-7, perhaps not a playoff team but not the Orlando Magic either. The problem the Jazz has encountered is on the road, where it lost for the seventh time in eight games, a product of its youth.

“We had a bunch of guys that just came down to Christmas shop and view the scenes, I guess, because we didn’t come to play,” Sloan said. “All we were asking them to do is play hard. That’s all we’ve ever asked.

“I understand how good [the Lakers] are, that’s taking nothing away from them. But, if you’re scared of them ... and afraid to put your hands on them, then you might as well stay at home anyways.”

Another game, another Laker elbow across a foe’s face. Bryant opened a cut on Bell’s right cheek in the second quarter when he turned with the ball and struck Bell with first the right, then the left elbow.

Bell was charged with a personal foul, apparently for contract before Bryant spun. Bryant was given a technical foul. Bell continued on with a bandage stuck to his cheek. Jackson removed Bryant briefly, then Bryant continued on with what became a dismal game for him.