Lakers Win With Cosmic Strip

The Lakers find themselves playing to see if they will coast through the last month of the regular season, as they did in their championship seasons, or labor through it, as they did last season.

The difference could be as subtle as a single possession at the end of a game, Vince Carter at the top of the key, Rick Fox poking at his waist, Gary Payton cheating closer.

Playing for the outcome in a game the Lakers once led by 16 points, Fox delayed Carter just long enough for Payton to strip the ball away, and the Lakers defeated the Toronto Raptors, 84-83, Sunday afternoon at Air Canada Centre.

The Lakers are 28-16, still waiting on Karl Malone, waiting again on Kobe Bryant. Phil Jackson had said he believed five wins on a seven-game trip that began here and will run to the All-Star break would keep them competitive in the Pacific Division. Given three of the games will be played on the tail end of back-to-backs, given better teams out there, and given the Lakers’ nine losses in their last 10 road games, a win in Toronto appeared nearly mandatory.

“We had to start here,” Payton said. “Starting with an ‘L,’ then trying to play a good team in Indianapolis [tonight], that would have been disastrous.”

So, the Lakers gave the ball to Shaquille O’Neal, who scored a season-high 36 points, played an efficient first half, defended with some conscience and then still found themselves in a one-possession game.

They scored 30 points in the second half, 13 in the fourth quarter. Two nights after the Minnesota Timberwolves outscored them by 22 points in the second half, the Raptors outscored them by 15.

Carter scored 27 points, 10 from the free-throw line. Donyell Marshall scored 18 points. Chris Bosh scored 17. The Lakers blamed themselves for not getting the ball to O’Neal more in the second half and for missing their second-half jumpers (eight for 33 overall, 0 for 5 from the arc).

A few of them blamed the referees in a game that was slowed by 55 personal fouls and five technical fouls. O’Neal stood out.

In fact, he gave this memorable postgame interview to Channel 9 reporter John Ireland:

O’Neal: “David Stern wonders why the league is losing money, that’s why. People pay good money to come watch these athletes play, they [the officials] try to take over the ... game.”

Ireland: “Shaq, we’re on live.”

O’Neal: “I don’t give a ... “

They let them play the last 18.3 seconds, by which point the Lakers had played away all but one point of a 54-38 halftime lead.

Carter, who’d played Devean George to the bench, dribbled at the top against Fox, in his first serious minutes since foot surgery nearly nine months ago. Carter went left, because that’s where Fox needed him to go, because that’s where Payton -- and help -- was.

“I know Vince’s moves,” Payton said. “He ducks his head a lot and doesn’t see a lot of people coming. So, I’m just there, trying to put a hand on the ball. If I grab his arm, they call a foul.”

Carter later claimed he was fouled.

Payton groped for the ball, which flew out of Carter’s hands and into O’Neal’s arms. The game ended with Payton dribbling out the clock, the rookie Bosh close enough to foul but choosing not to.

Payton admitted it was a risky play. “Yeah, but if you get all ball, they can’t call something,” he said. “I just had to make that gamble. Made the gamble and got away with it.”

It is, then, one more win they won’t have to make up in April, perhaps. And one game closer to having O’Neal at full strength, and Payton at full understanding. They won for only the second time on the road in nearly two months, still down two superstars, still wondering what it will look like in May.

“We’ll take this win,” Fox said. “It’s hard to get a rhythm with a lineup from week to week that shifts and changes. Guys are healthy, guys are out, and there are some surprises, with Kobe.”

The season, in a clause.