A Pause That Will Refresh

A year later, Rick Fox called the Lakers’ playoff elimination by the San Antonio Spurs not a failure or the end of a dynasty, as it was more commonly described at the time, but, quaintly, “a pause.”

They dispatched the team that ran them off last year and they did it with, of all things, defense. It was a weeklong effort, four wins in seven days, the Lakers holding the Spurs to 35.6% shooting in those games, 34.5% in those fourth quarters.

It was an end-to-end effort, finally in a coarse Game 6 played shoulder to shoulder Saturday night at Staples Center, bringing the Lakers to the Western Conference finals against the winner of Wednesday night’s Game 7 between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Sacramento Kings.

A lot happened in their yearlong pause, and a few things have been resolved, and a lot more will happen once they’re done. In the meantime, they took Sunday off, they’ll spend three days preparing for a Kings-Timberwolves hybrid and they’ll get a few body parts healthy -- Karl Malone’s right ankle chief among them.

As Shaquille O’Neal said in the wake of his 17-point, 19-rebound, five-block Game 6, “I’ll just chill out, not think about either team too hard, unless I find out who we play. So I’m just going to take care of the body, drink a lot of water, stay out of trouble.”

Another pause. They’ll play Game 1 of the conference finals Friday, either at home against the Kings or in Minnesota, and it would seem the Kings would be the preferred foe.

“Not only the rivalry, but home-court advantage,” Fox said. “Minnesota’s a team that’s played well throughout the playoffs at home and they played well against us at home. I think the Minnesota Timberwolves present a lesser challenge in that their experience level in the Western Conference championship may not be what it needs to be to win. But at the same time, Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell have been to [NBA] Finals, and Sam having won two. So I think that’s what’s carrying them, holding them over right now in the playoffs.

“Sacramento [has been] inconsistent throughout the years at this time, for reasons I believe being their style of play. They’re a great regular-season team, but yet to accomplish anything in the playoffs because you can control and wrangle their style and slow it down to a pace that makes them uncomfortable. So if we have home-court advantage against the Kings, we’re confident we can do the things we’ve done against them in the past.”

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A staple in the Lakers’ three-peat and an eager, irksome defender of King sharpshooter Peja Stojakovic, Fox played only eight minutes against the Spurs and not at all in the final three games.

Fox dislocated his thumb at the end of the regular season. When he did not make a shot in the first three games of the Lakers’ first-round series against Houston, he was benched in favor of Devean George.

While the Lakers miss Fox’s grit, George has brought a perimeter threat. He has made 14 of 27 three-pointers in the playoffs, 10 of 20 against the Spurs.

Fox missed part of the first round and all of the second round last season because of foot surgery.

“It’s frustrating right now to be in a similar situation, where the dislocated thumb put me behind the eight ball,” he said. “I was attempting to help the team in that Houston series. The experiment of playing injured went by the wayside for the betterment of our team and it’s worked out so far to our advantage. We’ve been able to win and I’ve been able to take time to heal. I don’t know.

“The way we’re going right now, guys are playing extremely well and I just have to continue to get my workouts in and continue to keep a positive mind-set in the event I’m needed down the road.”