A City Hauled Through Ringer, and Loving It

Four years, and we still can’t breathe.

Four years, and we still rub our faces and squeeze our hands and sweat like Shaq’s head.

Four years, and the Lakers are still turning Los Angeles into mush, winning playoff games they shouldn’t win, defending a championship that seems indefensible, exhilarating and exhausting and driving us absolutely Ginobili.

Were you watching Sunday afternoon? When those nutty neighbors defeated the San Antonio Spurs, 99-95, to even the Western Conference semifinals at two games apiece?

Oh, mother.

The Lakers lost their coach. They lost their poise. They fell behind by 16 points. They lost the crowd.

Then, in a fourth quarter that surely caused their attentive city to dive behind couches and collapse on carpets, they may have won the NBA championship.

The question is not, how much more can the rattled Spurs take?

The question is, how much more can we take?

“We don’t budge,” Kobe Bryant said afterward, plainly, chillingly. “We don’t go anywhere.”

Um, Kobe? We get it.

“We know we can beat these guys,” said the Spurs’ Stephen Jackson angrily.

Um, Stephen? That’s what many opponents say this time of year, just before finding themselves staring up at red faces and yellow noise sticks.

For four years, the Lakers have taken every question mark and turned it into an exclamation point, none more vivid than the one that has attached itself to this spring.

In 60-point type, it looks like from here.

If the Lakers win a fourth consecutive championship -- and the winner of this series will probably win the title because of Sacramento’s injuries -- then this will be the most beloved of their journeys, the most human of their endeavors.

The players have never been more taxed. The coaching staff has never been more tested. With four of their first 10 playoff games having been considered must-wins, the odds have never been more stacked.

Thus it should figure that the Staples Center fans have never been more involved, witness Jack Nicholson’s second consecutive outburst Sunday, with the Lakers leading by four with 3:06 remaining.

As the team walked past him after a timeout, Nicholson stood and grabbed his chest and shouted, “Tear their heart out! Tear their heart out!”

Here’s guessing even Phil Jackson, resting at home after undergoing an angioplasty procedure Saturday, probably smiled.

It is a testament to his preparation skills that, frankly, Jackson wasn’t really missed.

Asked if he had a message for his coach, Shaquille O’Neal smiled and said, “Stay home and get some rest.”

The fourth quarter, meanwhile, was a testament to everyone else.

Like another famous Laker fourth quarter, it started in the final tick of the third quarter, with Brian Shaw banking in a long three-pointer to give the Lakers a four-point lead.

Once again, assist, fans.

“I knew we were almost out of time, then I heard somebody in the stands yell, ‘Shoot!’ so I shot,” Shaw said.

Did he remember that he banked in an eerily similar shot at the end of the third quarter of the Game 7 comeback against Portland that fueled the dynasty three years ago?

“As soon as I got back to the bench,” he said, and didn’t we all.

And then the final quarter began, and a semifinal series became a heavyweight brawl, the teams trading baskets and bravado back and forth, leaving even legendary public address announcer Lawrence Tanter breathless.

“It was like the pit and the pendulum,” Tanter said.

Bruce Bowen drains a three-pointer. Devean George drains a three-pointer.

Shaquille O’Neal makes two free throws. Tim Duncan makes two free throws.

Bowen nails a three-pointer. Derek Fisher nails a three-pointer.

O’Neal makes one free throw. Duncan makes one free throw.

It was punch and counterpunch, it was Sacramento last June, an entire season in a moment.

Of course, the Lakers ultimately stole that moment, the Spurs still too jittery to hold it.

With the score tied, 95-95, with 1:17 remaining, what were you doing?

Were you hiding your face? Were you praying to Chick? Were you standing on your left leg and holding a tattered Laker pennant in your right hand and actually believing this would help?

If you were George, you were lunging at Stephen Jackson as he drove down the middle, leading to a steal that led to a Bryant free throw.

If you were O’Neal, you were bellying up to Duncan, one-on-one, knocking down his dribble and leading to a wild Jackson three-point miss that led to two more Bryant free throws.

And if you were Bryant? After giving your team a three-point lead, you would steal an inbounds pass from Parker that would seal the game.

Said Parker: “It was a bad decision.”

In these situations, the Lakers rarely make bad decisions.

Said Ginobili: “This is upsetting.”

This time of year, the Lakers rarely act upset.

“We refuse to lose,” Bryant said. “Period.”

A weary, wobbling, wowed-again city is not about to argue.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.