Lakers Step It Up in OT

The possibilities were many -- Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, even Smush Parker -- but the most unlikely duo led the Lakers to victory.

Sasha Vujacic made a three-point shot with 20.1 seconds left in overtime and Laron Profit added two free throws to give the Lakers a 105-101 victory over the Utah Jazz on Thursday at Delta Center.

Vujacic, a solid shooter in practice who hasn’t always displayed it in games, put the Lakers ahead, 103-101, pushing them toward an unlikely victory.

“He’s a good shooter, the best shooter on our team,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said.

Profit, who came into the game after Bryant fouled out with 2:07 left in overtime, made two free throws with 6.3 seconds left to provide a four-point lead. Profit had not entered the game until Bryant picked up his sixth foul.

“That’s what you’ve got to do if you’re a pro,” Jackson said. “You come in and do that.”

The Lakers never trailed until there were 23.8 seconds left in the fourth quarter, when Jazz forward Matt Harpring made two free throws for a 91-90 lead after being fouled by Odom while attempting a dunk.

Bryant came up short on a drive with 12 seconds left and Parker was stripped after Bryant batted the rebound to him near the three-point line.

Harpring made only one of two free throws with 4.3 seconds left to give the Lakers one last chance, trailing 92-90.

Bryant missed with a foot on the three-point line, but Devin Brown was called for a foul. Bryant made both free throws with 0.4 seconds left.

Most of the fans thought the game had ended, and many players had taken a step or two toward their locker rooms, when it became apparent that a foul had been called by referee Ron Olesiak.

“I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a lucky call,’ ” Jackson said. “A fortunate call.”

Brown thought so too.

“To me that’s a tough call to make with the game on the line like that,” he said. “As soon as he went up, I just put my hands straight up and he kind of gave an ‘oooh’ and I couldn’t believe that ref made that call.”

Said Bryant: “He kicked my legs out from under me. When it’s a questionable call, the refs usually won’t make the call when the game’s on the line, but that was an easy call.”

Odom didn’t quite hit his proclaimed goal of 80 points over four games -- a goal quickly swatted away by Jackson last week -- but he played a well-rounded game, with 12 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists.

Bryant struggled with his shot, scoring 30 points on 13-for-31 shooting.

He missed his first four shots of the fourth quarter before making a jumper with 4:44 left in the quarter.

He answered again a minute later with another jump shot, but had only one point the rest of the quarter until his last-second free throws.

Parker helped out with 21 points.

Billboard slogans around town promise Jazz games to be a “Pure Adrenaline Rush” but there had been little to get excited about at Delta Center. Two days after the Jazz scored its fewest-ever points at home in an 84-60 loss to Indiana, there was again apparently little semblance of offense, although it did pass the 60-point barrier on Brown’s free throw with 1:54 left in the third quarter.

Then came the fourth quarter, and the end of a comfortable night for the Lakers, plucked from an apparent loss by Vujacic and Profit.

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Guard Aaron McKie sustained a sprained left knee in the third quarter and did not return.... Forward Devean George, who has missed four games because of a sore left foot, could return tonight against Minnesota, Jackson said.... Forward Kwame Brown, already sidelined two weeks because of a strained hamstring, saw a hand specialist Wednesday and was diagnosed with soft-tissue inflammation in his right hand.