Business as Usual for Horry

The basketball, as it often does at the end, found Robert Horry out beyond the defense, out beyond reason.

He made the shot, of course, as he often does. This one from 23 feet, technically with two-tenths of a second left, really with nothing left, and the Lakers in trouble again.

Coach Phil Jackson stood with the ball in mid-arc, Horry begged it to get left a little, and when it did the Lakers had defeated the Indiana Pacers, 97-95, on Wednesday night at Staples Center.

“The ball was coming to me,” said Horry, who stood on the left wing, 23 feet from the basket, where the loose ball practically rolled up his leg. “I thought, ‘Am I lucky?’ ”

Turned out, they all were.

Horry, who beat the Sacramento Kings in Game 4 of the last Western Conference finals and entrenched himself in Laker lore by gathering a similarly batted ball and making the three-pointer, this time raised his right forefinger and skipped from the floor, teammates joyously bounding about him.

First, the Lakers had led by as many as 19 points. Then they had trailed by four with barely a minute to play.

Then, finally, Horry, from the shadows, from the right corner to beat Portland in Game 3 of the first round last year, from the left side to beat Philadelphia in Game 3 of the NBA Finals two years ago, from straight up to beat the Kings, on and on, straight to the Pacers.

“I got up off the bench and started walking to the dressing room immediately,” Jackson said. “Because I knew that was going in.”

In his first game back after missing three because of a kidney stone, Jackson, during a timeout with 2.8 seconds left, asked Rick Fox to throw an inbounds pass to Shaquille O’Neal. The ball was batted by Indiana’s Al Harrington, among others.

“Actually, I thought it was wide right,” Horry said. “A little basketball god pushed it over for me.”

They are old friends, it seems, Horry and this little friend. Sometimes, together, they win series. Sometimes just games. Wednesday’s was the Lakers’ seventh win in eight games, their 14th in 17 games, on a night when Kobe Bryant scored the 10,000th point of his career at an earlier age than anyone in NBA history, when the Pacers were perhaps a bit tougher than the Lakers believed.

The Pacers, who played Tuesday night in Golden State as the Lakers took the last of four days between games, have lost eight of nine, seven of them on the road.

O’Neal had 26 points and 11 rebounds, and Bryant had 20 points, but the Lakers had to score the final six points for the victory, and none of them came from them. Derek Fisher, whose perimeter shooting beat an occasional Pacer zone, scored twice on hard-driving layups in the final minute to tie the score, 95-95.

The Pacers led, 95-91, at the end of an 11-0 run. O’Neal had committed his fifth foul with more than seven minutes left, and they pressed that advantage. Jermaine O’Neal scored 28 points and Brad Miller had 16.

Shaquille O’Neal forced Jermaine into a miss with seven seconds left, setting up the final possession, the score tied, O’Neal in the middle, surrounded by Pacers.

“I told Jermaine not to double,” O’Neal said. “But he didn’t listen.”

Horry was open by, oh, 10 feet.

“So, I was very fortunate,” Horry said.

Everyone thought so.

Bryant’s 10,000th point came just inside four minutes remaining in the third quarter. He darted from the top of the key toward the rim, pulled up and threw in a six-foot runner for his 13th and 14th points. He had 10,000, exactly, at the age of 24 years, 193 days. Bob McAdoo had reached the same milestone at 25 years, 148 days, a record destined to be overrun with the influx of players entering the league straight from high school.

Bryant’s feat was announced to the sellout crowd as Ron Artest shot free throws at the other end. Bryant stood on the right wing as the cheers grew into chants of “MVP!” He grinned shyly and wiped sweat from his face with the neckline of his jersey, then smiled at Shaquille O’Neal as it all turned into a standing ovation.

A quarter later, the Lakers were playing to retain their place in the Western Conference standings, struggling to stay ahead of the eighth-place Phoenix Suns, struggling to hold off the Pacers.

And then in stepped Horry, a good month ahead of time, but welcome nonetheless.

“He sure has that knack,” Jackson said.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

East Side Story

*--* A look at the Laker record against teams currently seeded 1-8 in the Eastern Conference: 1. Detroit 1-0 5. Boston 0-1 2. N.J. 0-2 6. New Orl. 1-1 3. Indiana 2-0 7. Orlando 1-1 4. Phila. 0-1 8. Milw. 1-0

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