The View Isn’t Pretty From Where They Sit

They didn’t make a last stand. They weren’t standing at all.

They sat on the bench -- from left to right, Brian Shaw, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and Robert Horry -- watching the final 2 1/2 minutes of their reign as three-time champions dwindle away as the San Antonio Spurs finished off their decisive victory in Game 6.

It’s the last time we’ll see them all together in Laker uniforms. Bryant and O’Neal will be back in the middle, but the guys around them will change. They have to change if the Lakers are to regain their place atop the NBA.

Horry, 32, is aware that the Lakers won’t pick up their option for his $5.3-million contract next season. He shot 32% in the playoffs, including two for 38 from three-point range.

“You go by my play, I know I won’t be here,” he said. “It’s going to be a different team here next year. You might not be talking to me next year, you might not be talking to Brian. It’s going to be a lot of new faces.”

Shaw, 37, will be a free agent, and he sounded as if he knew his time in L.A. was coming to an end as well. No more alley-oop passes or banked-in three-pointers.

“I understand the nature of the business,” he said. “We didn’t move on this year. You saw a younger, more athletic team that was quicker to the ball beat us this year.”

And the differences in the teams seemed to be summarized whenever Shaw was matched up with Spur backup guard Manu Ginobili. Shaw had always been a reliable player for the Lakers, a steadying force who could restore order to the offense -- primarily by finding a way to get the ball to O’Neal -- whenever he came into the game.

But Ginobili’s quick hands made it difficult for Shaw to even make the entry pass. And Ginobili went right around Shaw to score or grab offensive rebounds.

On Thursday night the Spurs ran the Lakers right off the court, right onto the bench, forcing the Lakers into some quality time together.

“It was more non-verbal communication than anything else,” Shaw said.

“The good times were flashing through everybody’s head -- they were for me. It was a weird scene.”

Shaw thought about all of the support from the fans. He thought back to the electric moments, such as Horry’s three-pointer to beat Sacramento last season, the elation they felt after winning big game after big game.

There will be more big wins for the Lakers.

“As long as you have Kobe and Shaq,” Shaw said. “When you start with them, you’re going to have a shot.”

Yes, but somebody has to make shots. That used to be Horry’s department, especially with the game on the line.

One of the things that always made him so effective -- in addition to being so likable -- was his carefree attitude.

“It’s just a game,” he said to a Japanese reporter who asked him about the pressure of playing on the road before Game 3 of the NBA Finals in 2001.

Then he went out and made a three-pointer and four free throws in the final minute to beat the Philadelphia 76ers.

But in 2003 it wasn’t a game anymore. It was his job. The Lakers had been barely getting by with Horry at power forward, and he needed to give them a reason to think they still could win with him.

“I keep thinking about the way I performed and how much pressure I put on myself to try to do good so I would be back,” Horry said. “Everything went south on me.”

The fans kept trying to will one of his shots through the hoop. It didn’t work. He didn’t make a single three-pointer at Staples Center throughout the playoffs. The one that rattled in and out at the end of Game 5 in San Antonio is the one everyone will remember from this postseason.

It was hard for him to shake. When the plane landed in L.A. and he got home at 2:30 the next morning, he couldn’t sleep. So he spent an hour checking e-mails.

Thursday, his spirits dropped even lower as he was powerless to stop the onslaught of Tim Duncan and the Spurs.

“Personally, I haven’t felt this low in a long time ... since the death of my grandmother,” Horry said. “This is pretty low for me.

“I’m taking it extremely personally. I felt like I let everybody in this organization down.”

John Wooden’s premise was that no individual should take the blame for a loss, because no individual should get the credit for a victory.

But some individuals do contribute more than others. Horry has been a part of five championship teams (the first two in Houston), because he elevated his game in the postseason.

He’s a part of Los Angeles sports history. His shot to beat Sacramento and salvage the three-peat ranks right up there with Kirk Gibson’s home run in the 1988 World Series or Tyus Edney’s coast-to-coast jaunt in the 1995 NCAA tournament.

In this town the stars get all of the glory, but it’s the lighting technicians and makeup artists and set builders who make it work.

Shaq and Kobe were the marquee names, the guys who gave the Lakers an identity. Guys like Horry and Shaw were the ones who gave this team a personality, character and depth.

Horry was often the first and only player in the locker room when reporters walked in before games. And he was one of the first players to talk after the bitter losses in Games 5 and 6 of this series.

Shaw always played the game with a sense of enjoyment, as if he appreciated the privilege of playing NBA championship basketball each time he dribbled. And he always lent his perspective on the adventurous life in Lakerland.

He’s good-natured, and always went along with the laughs whenever O’Neal joked about the resemblance the golden basketball atop the Larry O’Brien trophy bore to Shaw’s bald head.

It happened every June, and the joke never got old and tired.

Only this time, Shaw and Horry did.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com