Mission Is a Long Way From Being Accomplished

Where’s the confetti? When’s the parade?

What? What’s that the Lakers are saying through their sweat, amid their aches, their emotion drained?

Oh, yeah.

Two more rounds.

As many as 14 more games.

Another full month.

Sigh. Frown. Gasp.

The Lakers’ 88-76 clinching win against San Antonio on Saturday night was as inspired as it was expected, but consider the toll it exacted.

The Lakers have hit the postseason halfway point lunging as if they had crossed the tape.

They have celebrated New Year’s Eve on Dec. 15.

They finished four baskets of bread just as the waiter was walking out of the kitchen with the steaks.

The good news for Laker fans is, out of 174 NBA teams that have trailed, 0-2, in a seven-game series, their team is only the eighth to come back and win that series.

The worrisome news for those fans could be, well, just that.

This was a six-game West semifinal struggle like no other second-round match in the Phil Jackson era.

How long was it? When it began, Gary Payton was a pebble in the Lakers’ shoe. When it ended, with seven assists and no turnovers and a couple of gloves on Tony Parker, he was a star on their chest.

“If I got down on myself, I would not be a basketball player,” Payton said.

How difficult was it? It wiped them out so much that Karl Malone admitted he recently fell asleep in a room other than his bedroom for the first time in his life.

“Physically, I’m fine, but mentally, I’m exhausted,” Malone said.

How completely stressful was it? Jackson said that in his coaching career, it compared only to the early 1990s playoff brawls between his Chicago Bulls and the New York Knicks.

“I can’t remember one with the Lakers that’s been this taxing,” said Jackson, and that was before a grinding Game 6.

Now, for the West championship, the Lakers will play either Sacramento or Minnesota, both of whom were 3-1 against them this season.

“Don’t know, and don’t care,” Shaquille O’Neal said when asked about that statistic.

What will matter, though, is the starting date for that series, putting the Lakers in the awkward position of cheering for their noxious neighbors from Sacramento.

The Kings trail their semifinal series with the Timberwolves, three games to two.

If the Kings win today, then Game 1 of the conference finals will be Friday. If the Timberwolves win, Game 1 will be Wednesday.

Plus, of course, if the Kings win the series, the Lakers would have the home-court advantage against them that they would lack against Minnesota.

“We have a tough task in front of us,” reminded O’Neal. “We have to follow our mission.”

Malone shook his head.

“There’s been games in Utah when I scored 30 points and grabbed 10 rebounds ... and I wasn’t as tired as I’ve been after scoring nine points and grabbing seven rebounds here,” Malone said of the series.

Malone said he knew the feeling. It was an NBA Finals feeling.

“This reminded me of those Finals series against Chicago,” said Malone, who faced the Bulls with the Utah Jazz in 1997 and ’98. “Every game was a championship game.”

Indeed, that’s how it felt, and the Lakers had no choice but to spend themselves. They only played the deft hands and quick feet and tough Spurs they were dealt.

They needed every ounce of this sixth game to clinch this series, every last O’Neal free throw, every splendid Kobe Bryant drive.

They even needed one more pot-of-gold looper from Derek Fisher, this a fadeaway three-pointer with the Lakers holding a one-point lead midway through the four quarter.

Even Fisher had to laugh.

In the final minutes, the Spurs dusted off Hack-a-Shaq and it didn’t work, O’Neal making five of his first eight free throws during the carnival.

And, finally, Bryant, as always, had the final say with a roaring dunk-and-stare-at-the-celebrities over Tim Duncan.

“It was an ugly game,” said O’Neal. “I knew we had it in us.”

The “it” was defense, as the Spurs were held to 30-percent shooting. In one stretch, Duncan went more than 25 game minutes without a point.

Remember the Parker who dominated the first two games? He hit four of 18 shots.

Hedo Turkoglu and Bruce Bowen, two dangerous role players? A combined 0 for 10.

“In the end, defense always rears its head, and that’s what it did tonight,” said Malone. “Defense can be amazing thing.”

So is this statistic: The Lakers have won their last 11 playoff games when that game represented their first chance to end a series.

Having passed perhaps the most difficult test of all those recent springs -- defeating, in four consecutive games, the defending NBA champions and winners of 17 straight games -- the Lakers now must answer an even tougher question.

What do you do for an encore?

Make that, two encores.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.