One of the Great Comebacks Removes the Biggest Obstacle

We know a lot of you are still having trouble moving around, so just blink if you believe any of this happened.

Was it only 2 1/2 weeks ago that the Lakers’ season could have ended, after which they’d have had to go through their annual rite of revulsion? Shaquille O’Neal would still never have won anything. Kobe Bryant would still be the poster child for Headless Youth. There would have been extra humiliation thrown on them for winning 67 games and arousing expectations in Phil Jackson’s first season, then becoming only the seventh NBA team to blow a 3-1 lead in a playoff series.

Can you remember as far back as June 4, when they were being carried out feet first by the visiting Portland Trail Blazers, who had them down by 15 points, a bigger lead than anyone in NBA history had ever blown in the fourth quarter of a Game 7?

Of course, the Lakers said later they took it in stride, or as Robert Horry, asked if he wasn’t worried, noted, “Nah, I’ve been in situations like that before.”

But players always say that. Let’s just say it sure scared the life out of everyone else.

“Sure, there was a lot of anxiety,” says assistant coach Bill Bertka. “You could see all the work and effort that had gone out and the sacrifice that the team had made was hanging on what was going to transpire.”

Bertka is the lone holdover on Jackson’s staff to the bad old days of the last five postseason flops, one more embarrassing than the one before:

1996--The Lakers, who have won 53 games, with Magic Johnson making a comeback as a player n the second half of the season, lose, 3-1, to underdog Houston, as Magic complains he doesn’t know his role under Coach Del Harris. This mercifully ends a season in which Magic and Nick Van Exel bumped referees and Cedric Ceballos jumped the team and went boating.

1997--Their first playoffs with Shaquille O’Neal, 25, and Kobe Bryant, 18. They fall, 4-1, in the second round to Utah, with the Harris-Van Exel feud erupting, and Harris giving the deciding shots in Game 5 to Bryant, who goes out with four airballs.

1998--They make the Western finals, after steamrollering Seattle in the second round. This time, they don’t win any games at all and fall to Utah, 4-0.

1999--With Harris fired and Dennis Rodman signed and released, they are swept in the second round by San Antonio, after an end-of-Game 2 farce, in which they neglect to take a foul or double-team Tim Duncan, who makes the winning shot.

So what do you think anyone would have said this spring, after they’d won 67 games, eight more than any other team, and run up a 3-1 lead over the Trail Blazers in the Western Conference finals, and were on the verge of becoming the seventh team in playoff history to blow a 3-1 lead?

Nice try, guys?

Everyone knows what ultimately happened--the Trail Blazers missed 13 consecutive shots and went 8:59 without a field goal--but why is another question.

In the beginning, the Trail Blazers got great looks and barely missed on several of them. The Laker defense got tougher and Portland’s players undoubtedly felt the pressure.

It can’t be that the Lakers had no character before and suddenly acquired it over the summer, but they must have learned something from all those humiliations, and Jackson had turned them into tougher defenders and a more professional outfit, in general.

Things happen when you never stop trying. This was just one of their more memorable tries.

“This particular group of guys,” Bertka says, “that’s what you hope your teams are, that they’re conditioned to respond to those type situations--and they did. The best part about it, [the comeback] happened early enough--we got the scent with about nine minutes to go--and you just sensed it. When I was sitting there, I just sensed, ‘Hey, we got a shot at this thing!’

“There were several key plays at the nine-minute mark. I remember Tex [Winter, assistant coach] hollering something--I think it mighta been Tex--’Is this the end? Is this the way it’s gonna end?’ ”

Well, it sure looked like the way it was going to end.

On the videotape, the Trail Blazers are still knifing through the Laker defense, cutting the Laker hearts out.

It’s late third quarter. Portland has just gone on an 18-3 run. Staples is stunned. The Lakers look dazed. The Trail Blazer reserves are jumping around on the bench, sensing this is their game.

Arvydas Sabonis, the hulking center with the deft touch, makes a nifty pass off the dribble to Rasheed Wallace for a two-handed stuff. . . . O’Neal barges into Sabonis at the other end, trying to get a call but there’s no whistle and the ball goes out of bounds, Trail Blazer ball. . . . Scottie Pippen steps back on Brian Shaw and tosses in a three-pointer, easy as you please.

It’s Trail Blazers, 71-55, when Shaw gets a pass from Bryant at the end of the quarter and, with Pippen flying out at him, launches from behind the arc.

The ball caroms off the board and into the basket, cutting it to 71-58.

“I was just glad that it went in,” says Shaw. “Somebody jumped out at me and I had to shoot it up a little higher. I wasn’t anticipating it going in off the glass but it did. It ended up being a pretty big shot, a momentum changer for us.”

Well, not really.

Steve Smith has been on fire in the third period, so Jackson switches Bryant, who had been on Bonzi Wells--Phil puts Kobe wherever the fire is hottest--back on him.

Smith then opens the fourth quarter by driving to the baseline and hitting a tough, running 10-footer over Bryant. It’s a 15-point game again.

“Rasheed was getting turnaround jumpers,” says John Salley, “and Steve Smith caught on fire, which kinda took it to the next level. Steve was doing things we weren’t accustomed to guys doing on one leg [Smith has a sore knee]. He turned over to me and was like, ‘It’s getting going now.’ And he got like seven in a row or eight and that’s what took ‘em up to 15-16 points.”

In the press box, a few seats down from Chick Hearn, Bill Plaschke and I are discussing the Lakers’ chances. A few seconds later, the ball goes in to O’Neal--and the Trail Blazers grab him.

“That’s why the Lakers won’t win,” I say. “They’re just going to put Shaq at the foul line all quarter and make him shoot the Lakers back into it, a point at a time.”

The Lakers, who have figured it out, aren’t throwing it in to their big guy as often. Of course, that means they have to find someone else to win them the game, or several of them.

The actual turning point occurs with the Blazers up, 75-60, although at the time, it’s just one play. Bryant misses a 17-footer but Horry punches the rebound back out in front. The Lakers get it back in to O’Neal before the Trail Blazers can arrive in force, and he makes a quick jump hook.

At the other end, Wells, a 6-foot-5 220-pound guard whose post-up game has been wearing the Lakers out, takes a runner in the lane over Rick Fox but Bryant appears suddenly in the airspace above him, spikes the shot left-handed and recovers it.

The Lakers run out and find Shaw open in the corner, behind the arc. His shot goes down and it’s 75-65. Five points just fell off the lead in 31 seconds.

The Trail Blazers are still getting the same shots they were but they aren’t going in.

Pippen misses a three-pointer off the back iron, meaning it was true, just too long.

Wallace’s 16-footer rims in and out.

Wells’ three-pointer rims in and out. Before you know it, they’re on a long drought.

“Portland had played so well,” said Bertka, “and they started playing not to lose and we were attacking. And they were playing like, ‘Hey, we can’t afford to lose this. We had a 15-point lead!’

“And you could see, they got tentative and as we got closer, we got the adrenaline rush.”

Bryant makes one of two free throws.

O’Neal makes one of two free throws. The Trail Blazers are banging him as soon as he makes a move. The problem is, they’re in the penalty with 8:34 left in the quarter.

With the Trail Blazers up, 75-67, Shaw misses a three-pointer. With Brian Grant blocking out O’Neal, Wallace is the first to the ball, but the 6-10 Wallace has small hands and has trouble hanging on. He knocks this one to the floor at his feet, where Horry snatches it away from him.

Horry dribbles it out to the arc. Wallace follows him but not as if he’s Reggie Miller. Once, no one ever let Horry get open looks from the three-point line but Horry has had several slow years and Wallace is cheating back to keep him from reposting it to O’Neal.

So Horry knocks down the three-pointer that makes it 75-70 with 7:06 left, and it’s a ballgame again.

“What you do, with us, what A.C. [Green] and I are supposed to do half the time is, when we get an offensive rebound and we’re covered, pull it out,” says Horry.

“I pulled it out and [Wallace] didn’t come with me, so . . . I shot it. I figured, if I get an offensive rebound and you’re not on me, I’m shootin’ because I worked hard to get this offensive board and I don’t have any plays run for me. I’m shootin’.”

Pippen misses from 18 feet, Wallace misses a turnaround from 10. Bryant makes a 13-foot jumper off the elbow and it’s 75-72.

The Trail Blazers miss four more--now they’re up to 12 in a row--including O’Neal’s block of Grant’s short jumper and Wallace’s 21-footer, which bounces off the rim and over the backboard. The Laker defense is biting and the Trail Blazers aren’t getting the same looks any more.

Trailing by three, Shaw throws the ball in to the post to O’Neal. Smith turns and leaves Shaw to double O’Neal, who immediately kicks it back out.

Shaw bangs in the three-pointer that ties it, 75-75, with 4:00 left, capping a 15-0 run.

“I was throwing it in to him, for him to make his move,” says Shaw, “and my man doubled down, and he kicked it out and I just shot the shot.”

It’s 79-79 with 1:34 left when Bryant drives the lane and double-clutches on a runner, waiting to release the ball, drawing a foul on Wallace, who rolls on the floor to protest the call. Not that this means much, since Wallace protests most calls.

Bryant makes both free throws and the Lakers never trail again.

At the other end, Wallace, fouled, misses both free throws.

Bryant makes a 17-footer with 1:09 left. Now it’s 83-79, Lakers.

Pippen misses a three-pointer. The Lakers open the floor and give the ball to Bryant, who blows by Pippen with a right-to-left crossover, spots O’Neal and throws him a high lob, which O’Neal dunks, setting off one of the wildest celebrations Staples has seen.

OK, it’s only been open for nine months, but it was still pretty wild.

O’Neal comes away from the hoop with his eyes bulging and his mouth in a wide O, his arms pointing ahead of him, looking crazed. The Trail Blazers haven’t even called timeout yet but O’Neal runs into the Laker reserves, who are streaming off the bench, and gives Derek Fisher a chest bump. If you missed it, don’t worry, they’ll replay it a few thousand times.

“They got tentative and as we got closer, we got the adrenaline rush,” says Bertka. “I’ve seen it before but in this particular case, I have to classify that comeback as one of the great ones in Laker history. It’s always going to be one of the great memories I have, when I look back on the Lakers.”

Two weeks and two days later, the Lakers finish off the pesky Indiana Pacers and finally realize that destiny they’ve heard so much about.

Farewell, ‘90s. It’s a new day, now, even if it was close.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Turning Point

A look at the Lakers’ fourth-quarter run that wiped out a 15-point deficit over the last 10:28 (Laker possessions in italic type):

* 60-75: Wells makes the second of two free throws (10:28 left)

* 60-75: Bryant misses 15-foot jumper (10:15)

* 62-75: O’Neal makes layup (10:10)

* 62-75: Wells misses five-foot jumper (9:48)

* 65-75: Shaw makes 23-foot three-pointer (9:39)

* 65-75: Pippen misses 24-foot three-pointer (9:18)

* 66-75: Bryant makes one of two free throws (9:11)

* 66-75: Wallace misses 16-foot jumper (8:52)

* 66-75: Wallace misses eight-foot jumper (8:44)

* 66-75: Fox misses 25-foot three-pointer (8:26)

* 67-75: O’Neal makes one of two free throws (8:24)

* 67-75: Bryant misses 24-foot three-pointer (8:03)

* 67-75: Wells misses 24-foot three-pointer (7:33)

* 67-75: Shaw misses 25-foot three-pointer (7:13)

* 70-75: Horry makes 23-foot three-pointer (7:06)

* 70-75: Pippen misses 20-foot jumper (6:40)

* 70-75: Wallace misses seven-foot jumper (6:05)

* 72-75: Bryant makes 11-foot jumper (5:47)

* 72-75: Smith misses 13-foot jumper (5:23)

* 72-75: Wallace misses 11-foot jumper (5:04)

* 72-75: Bryant misses 22-foot three-pointer (4:43)

* 72-75: Grant misses nine-foot jumper (4:28)

* 72-75: Wallace misses 19-foot jumper (4:20)

* 75-75: Shaw makes 25-foot three-pointer (4:00)

* 75-75: Wallace misses seven-foot jumper (3:39)

* 75-75: Bryant misses 11-foot jumper (3:19)

* 75-77: Wallace makes layup (2:58)

* 77-77: O’Neal makes two free throws (2:44)

* 77-77: Grant misses 15-foot jumper (2:31)

* 79-77: O’Neal makes nine-foot jumper (2:12)

* 79-79: Wallace scores (goaltending on O’Neal, 1:50)

* 81-79: Bryant makes two free throws (1:34)

LAKERS LED REST OF GAME

During the 21-4 run:

* Lakers were six of 12 from field

* Lakers were six of six on free throws.

* Portland was two of 14 from field, including 12 misses in a row.