Lakers Finally Look the Part

It was the Lakers at their best, in a season that has been one of their worst.

Vlade Divac looked healthy and spry. Kobe Bryant couldn’t miss. Caron Butler provided another peek at the future. Brian Grant jostled down low, taking rebounds and completing three-point plays.

All in all, the Lakers offered a tease, a parallel-universe glance at what could have been this season.

Reduced to spoilers, the Lakers ruined the Seattle SuperSonics’ chance to clinch the Northwest Division title, at least for one night, in a dominant 117-94 victory in front of a hushed crowd of 17,072 Friday at KeyArena.

The Lakers had lost 13 of 14, but Divac and Grant helped stop the slide from the post, Bryant did his part with 42 points, and Butler followed through with 31 points.

The Lakers defeated a team with a winning record for the first time since a March 10 victory over the Dallas Mavericks, secured their largest margin of victory this season and had assists on 31 of their 42 field goals, but there were few strolls down the path of postgame “what-if” questions.

“I have no crystal balls, can’t look in there and say, ‘What if, what if?’ ” Coach Frank Hamblen said. “It’s what we are.”

What they were on Friday was a mix of flash and fun, with Bryant scoring 21 points in the fourth quarter and Divac doing his best acting.

Divac, in his third game back from back surgery, was strong in the intangibles department. His numbers -- three points and four assists -- weren’t gaudy, but he hit Butler with a clean back-door pass, showed more assertiveness on offense and provided enough comic relief to remind onlookers of what had been missing from the Lakers in his absence.

As the Lakers moved to a surprising 14-point halftime lead, Divac paused to tell SuperSonic forward Reggie Evans to stop flopping, a Divac staple during his career.

Divac, of course, flopped early in the fourth quarter, drawing a foul call on Danny Fortson by overreacting after the ball was stolen from him. Divac smiled, the Lakers retained possession and Divac set a sharp screen for a three-pointer by Bryant.

“I almost hurt myself,” Divac said, smiling. “Almost got back on the injured list.”

Bryant, who made only four of 19 shots in a 114-100 loss Thursday against the Houston Rockets, made 15 of 22 against the SuperSonics. In the fourth quarter, he made eight of nine shots, including all four of his three-point attempts to keep Seattle from any thoughts of a late rally.

“Kobe was terrific,” Hamblen said. “He started out dishing the ball early, and he saw the lay of the landscape and started scoring.”

Good fortune, absent from the Laker bench most of the season, played a part in the Lakers’ 56-42 halftime lead. With Ray Allen all over him, Bryant pump-faked and banked in a three-point shot at the buzzer.

Other developments in the first half included a svelte reverse layup by Grant, who finished with nine points, and 16 points from Butler.

Butler, who had led the Lakers in scoring five of the last eight games, tied a season-high Friday, making 10 of 19 shots.

The SuperSonics played without their second-leading scorer, forward Rashard Lewis, and their sixth man, Vladimir Radmanovic, because of injuries. But the Lakers were without injured starters Lamar Odom and Chris Mihm.