5-0 Doesn’t Come Easily for Lakers

It might have been a battle of behemoths, had the San Antonio Spurs had theirs.

Instead, the Lakers went two overtimes Thursday night for their 120-117 victory against a lot of other Spurs, none of whom were Tim Duncan or Tony Parker. It was their first win at SBC Center, which was something.

Eliminated by the Spurs last spring, a series whose sting helped bring free agents Karl Malone and Gary Payton to Los Angeles, the Lakers arrived on the second leg of a four-game trip, put their Fantastic Four on the floor and had nothing but trouble.

However, the Lakers are 5-0, and they’re finding each other bit by bit, and just in time against the Spurs, who are 3-3.

Shaquille O’Neal rebounded a Kobe Bryant miss and made two free throws with 16.9 seconds remaining in the second overtime and Payton made another free throw for the winning margin. Given one last chance with four seconds left, the Spurs ran a play that ended with a three-point shot for Kevin Willis, who’d made 40 of them in 19 seasons. O’Neal blocked that, after which the Laker bench cleared and mobbed ... Robert Horry. Just to say hi.

“That’s the road,” said Laker Coach Phil Jackson, who seemed to know what was coming and wore an open collar rather than his usual tie. “That’s what happens. This game’s competitive. It doesn’t matter what the score is in games, it’s all about winning and losing.

“No one’s going to know at the end of the season what the scores were or who even played. It’s just the process you go through playing 82 games. You do that and you keep doing it, pretty soon you get better. Right now we’re not a real polished team, but we’re competitive.”

Bryant, gaining by the minute, it seems, on his July knee surgery, scored 37 points in 49 minutes. O’Neal had 35 points and 20 rebounds in 50 minutes. Malone shot poorly but took 19 rebounds in 42 minutes. Payton had 16 points in 48 minutes.

The Lakers, who play the rested New Orleans Hornets tonight in Louisiana, outrebounded the undermanned, undersized Spurs, 66-47, but missed 14 of 37 free throws. They also had their problems defending Manu Ginobili, who in 45 minutes had 33 points and 12 rebounds, all career highs.

That, along with some scoring balance and an adequate game from Rasho Nesterovic, kept the Spurs in a game that appeared to promise an easy Laker victory rather than a two-overtime leaner.

“It wound up being one of those games we had to tough out,” Bryant said. “[But] it’s just one game in the season, the fifth game of the season.”

Horry finally made his three-pointer here. It was going on six months late to help the Lakers, but in the second overtime he squared up on the left wing, let go as O’Neal pushed toward him, and drew the Spurs even, 117-117, with 56 seconds left.

“Big shot by Rob,” O’Neal said. “If he’d have made that same shot last year, I’d have four rings.”

He laughed.

The Spurs would not score again and O’Neal cleaned up a Bryant mistake -- he shot four seconds into the 24-second clock -- with a rebound and, with 16.9 seconds left, the free throws. O’Neal made 11 of 16 free throws after starting the season eight for 25.

Jackson said Bryant’s shot was too early. Bryant said Jackson told him to go early.

“Phil’s been a coach a long time,” Bryant said. “What am I going to say, ‘No?’ ”

At the start of the first overtime, Payton started to rag Ginobili, backed him straight down the court, his square jaw chopping at Ginobili’s game and psyche. Ginobili backpedaled, grinned and flushed, but he didn’t turn away, and eventually they both got technical fouls, when Payton had done most of the talking.

For four quarters Ginobili had taken all of the Lakers’ fight, and he was the reason the Spurs were standing, heaving but standing, at the end.

“He carried us the whole game,” Malik Rose said of Ginobili.

Duncan, the reigning MVP, did not play. Neither did Parker, the Spurs’ point guard. They have two good ankles between them, and it could be three weeks before Duncan returns. Parker could be back Monday, at the earliest.

So, the Spurs left their half-court game for another day and ran at the Lakers with Ginobili and Jason Hart and Bruce Bowen, drawing their offense and the defensive confusion by getting up and down the floor.

The Lakers did not lead for any of the third quarter, though in the final minutes of it they cut an 11-point deficit to two, and Bryant’s three-point play on the first possession of the fourth quarter gave them their first lead, 79-78, since the second quarter.

The Spurs pushed back, though, gave the ball to Ginobili, spun the Lakers around pick-and-rolls and made their free throws. They took the little guy’s fight to the Lakers, whose heft and experience left them not ahead, but tied, 101-101 with 2.1 seconds remaining in regulation.

Ginobili had just missed a left-handed finger roll near the rim and just ahead of O’Neal, leaving an opening. On the final play of regulation, Malone pumped Rose into the air from 19 feet and spun his shot wide left as the buzzer sounded.

The first overtime began, then, at 101-101 and ended at 109-109, Malone short and left on a jumper and Bryant off on another in the final minute with the score tied. Bryant was free on the left side and defended by Hart, and Ginobili also missed twice, his first with 14 seconds left and the second as time expired.

On the latter, taken from a few feet from the Laker bench, Ginobili spun and bit his fist in frustration, his head practically in the laps of the Laker coaches.

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Inside Job

The Lakers took advantage of the absence of the Spurs’ Tim Duncan and scored a majority of their points inside the paint, yet were extended to two overtimes before winning, 120-117:

*--* Lakers Spurs Dunks M-A 3-3 4-4 Layups M-A 21-32 3-11 In Paint M-A 35-61 18-49 Points in Paint 70 36 Perimeter Points 27 45 Free Throws M-A 23-37 36-44 Total Rebounds 66 47 Off. Rebounds 22 9

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