Laker Defense Has a Split Personality

At the conclusion of four games in the Midwest, a trip where the weather changed with their game, from 2 degrees in Chicago to almost 60 here, Shaquille O’Neal made his way toward a day off, almost content.

By the end of Saturday night, after their 98-94 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks at Bradley Center, the Lakers were 2-2, saving the week with a rally from 18 points down, summoning the defense to hold the Bucks to eight third-quarter points.

They played four games in five nights, left Los Angeles in sixth place in the Western Conference and returned tied for the same, with the Utah Jazz. They lost terribly in Chicago and Detroit, won with some distinction against playoff teams in Minnesota and Milwaukee, and gladly boarded a bus that would start their journey home.

“I’m tired, kind of beat up,” O’Neal said.

“Nobody takes a beating like me, but who cares? Go home, go to the park tomorrow, play with the babies, back at it on Monday.”

The Lakers, 37-28, ever capable, sometimes unwilling, play the Clippers on Monday night. Technically, the trip continues, as the Clippers will play as the home team, and then the Lakers play at Sacramento on Thursday night.

There are few breaks from here, a road game starting from their own driveways being one of them. Otherwise, for every first half against the Bucks, where they gave up 64 points and 59.1% shooting, there will have to be a second, where they gave up 30 points and 35.1% shooting. The Bucks made eight of their first 12 three-pointers, and two of their next 11.

As Coach Phil Jackson bellowed, “Play some defense! Play some ... defense,” they indeed defended, and O’Neal scored 24 points, leading all five starters -- Kobe Bryant (20), Rick Fox (14), Derek Fisher (13) and Mark Madsen (12) -- in double figures.

O’Neal was nine for 23 from the floor and six for 14 from the line, and twice was called for stepping over the free-throw line prematurely, but he scored 14 points in the second half and had some lift in his game again. It was critical, as Bryant (six for 14 from the field, nine rebounds) continued to fight flu symptoms, forcing him to coast through large portions of the game at the offensive end. He said he focused on disrupting Gary Payton defensively, and Payton missed 12 of 15 shots and scored six points. That left a lot of the work to O’Neal and the others.

“I had a little bit of energy,” O’Neal said. “I missed a couple chippies. I was hit on the arm, but, you know, it doesn’t matter. I missed a couple throws. I knew we really needed this game. Second half, everybody picked up the defense.... We knew we were going to win the game.

“This was a game we needed, since I messed us up in the Chicago game. And the guys messed me up in the Detroit game.”

He laughed.

The Lakers outscored the Bucks, 10-5, in the final three-plus minutes. Fisher stepped in from the arc and made an 18-footer, just as he had the night before in Minneapolis. O’Neal made an eight-foot hook over Ervin Johnson. Fox, with the clock winding down and having left Payton behind, banked in a running seven-footer with 1:14 left for a 94-89 lead. (“That’s what it’s come to,” Fox said, laughing. “Just went by him, the running one-hander, that’s Sherman Douglas country.”) Bryant scored the final four points, two on a 17-footer over Payton with 36 seconds left (“What I was waiting for,” he said.) and two free throws with 4.9 seconds left.

From a three-point deficit with five minutes left, the Lakers scored on seven of 10 possessions, playing right through the end of a trip that had appeared to have them whipped only an hour before.

“It’s probably the least anybody wanted to have happen,” Fox said of their 2-2 mark. “We underachieved based on the way we were playing before we went out on the road. But four games in five nights, traveling, two would be what most people would try to get. We have higher standards.”

Said Jackson: “It’s a start, a beginning.”

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The West

*--* Western Conference standings, with division leaders 1-2. The top eight teams (after tiebreakers) qualify for postseason: W-L GB 1. Dallas 49-16 -- 2. Sacramento 46-20 3 1/2 3. San Antonio 46-18 2 1/2 4. Portland 42-23 7 5. Minnesota 42-26 8 1/2 6. Lakers 37-28 12 6. Utah 37-28 12 8. Phoenix 34-30 14 1/2 8. Houston 34-30 14 1/2 10. Golden St 32-34 3

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