Lakers Sustain Forward March

In a little more than a month, the Lakers have raised themselves from out to in, into the thick of the Western Conference playoff qualifiers, serious now, it would seem.

They jumped from one cushy home game to the next, settled themselves, and jumped again, Sunday landing with some force on the Philadelphia 76ers, another team feeling the glow of March momentum.

They have ridden Kobe Bryant, patched up Shaquille O’Neal, passed most of a kidney stone, and by late afternoon Sunday, having defeated the 76ers, 106-92, at Staples Center, the Lakers were 35-26, solidly in sixth place, some wondering who’s next.

While sixth place after 61 games might have jarred their sensibilities in any of their previous Phil Jackson seasons, they’d had to win nine of 10 games and 16 of 19 to get there this time, and so if there are still regrets they are not voiced. O’Neal, playing as big as ever the last few games, had 39 points and 10 rebounds Sunday, not 48 hours after tearing into Minnesota for 40 and 14.

“We knew it was coming,” guard Derek Fisher said of the Laker run and O’Neal’s part in it. “We just didn’t know at what point it would. I don’t think we ever feared not making the playoffs, or not getting into a position to control our destiny. We weren’t that far back. We’re where we need to be.”

Bryant scored 28 points, 12 from the free-throw line, as he plunged into the middle of a 76er defense that boasted the now familiar Eastern Conference-type center. That is to say, none. Devean George had 14 points off the bench, the Lakers won each quarter, and the 76ers never were closer than nine points in the last one.

“There was no way to guard Shaquille,” 76er Coach Larry Brown said. “The guy was phenomenal.”

Allen Iverson, hounded effectively by Fisher, scored 30 points on 28 shots and had six turnovers in 47 minutes. The 76ers lost for only the second time in 13 games, the other in Sacramento a week before.

“It was a good win for us,” Bryant said. “We played really well. I thought defensively we played our best basketball ... the best defensive ball we’ve played in a long time.”

The 76ers were heading home, the Lakers heading out, both, it seemed, in the same direction. Philadelphia played the last of its five-game trip, having moved just behind New Jersey in the Atlantic Division. The Lakers came to the end of a kind and airy two months, and through the end of the season will play only eight more games at Staples, seven as the home team. They fly today to Chicago for the first of six consecutive road games, one in purple against the Clippers.

Asked if he felt they were ready for what the schedule brings, Bryant said, “We better be. We don’t have any choice.”

In the same week they beat Indiana, Minnesota and Philadelphia, all playoff locks, and all at Staples. At the end of it, they held to their tested themes of O’Neal on the interior and Bryant on the perimeter, or at least starting there.

The Lakers went often to O’Neal, sturdier on his foot and knee than at any time since the season before last, or since the Lakers beat the 76ers in the NBA Finals. He made 14 of 24 field-goal attempts, slopped around on the free-throw line and, in case there were any questions, scored 15 points in the final quarter.

“My teammates have done a better job of getting me the ball and I have done a better job with the ball,” O’Neal said. “We are playing pretty good defense and moving the ball around. We are getting the ball where it’s supposed to go, passing and cutting, and we just have to keep it up.”

About his now-famous toe, along with his infamous conditioning, O’Neal sighed and said, “I feel OK. It’s only going to get better. Every day I’m working hard in games and it’s only going to get better. The closer we get to the playoffs the better I’ll feel. Because I have to feel OK.”

He is right, of course, in that he has no choice.

Brown said later that the game turned not entirely on O’Neal, but also on the league’s assignment of officials, and that referee Derrick Stafford held a grudge against the 76ers. In a mid-third-quarter moment, three 76ers -- Iverson, Brown and Tyrone Hill -- were assessed technical fouls, Iverson and Hill by Stafford.

Iverson and Fisher had slid out of bounds together, each gripping a side of the basketball, and Stafford awarded possession to the Lakers, leading to the 76er outrage.

Bryant made the three free throws and O’Neal made a layup on the next possession, so the Lakers went from a 61-54 lead to a 66-54 lead, and Brown went from calm to livid.

“One of their officials has it personal for some of our players,” he said later. “He’s been personal with us for a long, long time.”

Iverson added: “I think that referee, Derrick what’s-his-name, I think he’s got a personal vendetta against us.... When we asked about things he gave us smart comments and pretty much ‘joked’ us.

“My head mentally was out of the game after that point because I felt like we didn’t have a shot.”