A Laker Close-Out Sail

By TIM KAWAKAMI

May 17, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Well, turns out the Phoenix Suns can be stopped, chopped and dropped.

Turns out the Lakers, when properly motivated and menacingly into the moment, can lasso the trickiest, friskiest opponents, and turn a series-clinching playoff game into a 48-minute defensive dissertation.

The Lakers had a point to make in Game 5 of this sometimes-sloppy series, and many, many more to prevent.

They blocked shots, clamped down the lanes, denied fastbreak chances, swarmed the ball and along the way breezed to an emphatic 87-65 victory before 18,997 at Staples Center on Tuesday to finish off the Suns, four games to one.

The Lakers not only stopped the high-powered Suns, they all but made them invisible, vanished under a sea of gold and purple energy.

“How’s that for killer instinct, huh?” guard Kobe Bryant said.

The Lakers advanced to the Western Conference finals and seemed to revitalize themselves in the process.

“I think it’s a statement to the city of Los Angeles just to relax,” Bryant said. “You lose one game, it’s not Armageddon.

“We were upset because we got our butts kicked very bad. That was it.”

The performance no doubt delivered a loud statement to the Portland Trail Blazers, who will face the Lakers in the Western Conference finals, beginning Saturday at Staples:

They may have weaknesses, but the Lakers can turn out the lights on teams faster than anyone.

Phoenix made only 23 of 80 field-goal tries (28.8%) and the Suns’ scoring total set a Laker record-low for opponent playoff points.

It was 49-23 at the break, tying an NBA record for fewest points in a half by a team.

“It feels great to be able to know that we can hold down a team that scored 71 points on us in the previous game, the first half,” Bryant said. “This game, they scored 23.”

As usual, the Laker defensive effort was triggered by Shaquille O’Neal, who contested outside jumpers and stood in the way of any Sun who dared venture near the lane.

O’Neal had 15 points and 21 rebounds (one short of his career playoff-high) despite sitting out the fourth quarter.

Bryant led the Lakers with 17 points, but the scoring portion of the performance was not the story at all.

The Suns did not make their 10th field goal of the game until the 5:44 mark of the third quarter, did not hit the 40-point mark until a technical foul by O’Neal gave them a free throw with no time left in the third quarter, and did not have a chance after a desultory, nine-point second quarter.

In that incredible quarter, the Suns made only two of 17 shots. From the last 6:07 of the second quarter to the beginning minutes of the third, the Suns went an 11:08 stretch without a field goal.

For a while, with the score 49-23, or 52-25, it looked and felt like a Nebraska-Kansas football game, with the Cornhusker offense rumbling hard without resistance.

The Lakers shot only 36.3% (29 of 80), but they did make six of 13 three-point tries to pull away early.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a game or a series in which a team has won a game by 22 points and shot 36%,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “We have to say that defense won the day, take it and go on.”

Said Phoenix Coach Scott Skiles: “If you told me before the game Shaq was going to go 7 for 19 and Kobe 6 for 16, I’d say we’d be in good shape. I didn’t think the Lakers were great or anything. We just couldn’t make a shot.”

Jackson said the Lakers made a determined effort to fire through the screens and pressure the ball harder--especially against point guard Jason Kidd, who struggled to a three-for-13 shooting outing, with only two assists and five turnovers.

“They got a kick out of it,” Jackson said of the Lakers. “They got a kick out of the fact that they could kind of give back to them what they got on Sunday.”

From the start, the Lakers owned the tempo, owned the passing lanes, and owned this game.

“You just try to disrupt their timing, disrupt their rhythm,” Bryant said. “What you have to try to do as a defensive team is rush them and take them out of their timing. So those shots are just a little bit off.”

Phoenix’s Clifford Robinson made a jumper on the Suns’ opening possession, but from then on, the going was almost impossible for the Suns.

They scored six points in the first 4:25, and that turned out to be a tidal wave of scoring, before the long drought ahead.

“You hate to have your worst game of the season the last game of the season,” Skiles said. “But we just couldn’t make a shot and it kind of spilled over, onto the fastbreak, we weren’t very organized on the break”

The Lakers had found their emotional sweet spot, and it was with defense.

“The beating is still fresh on my mind,” Rick Fox said before the game. “I don’t think at any point any of us should be relaxed about having a 3-1 lead. . . .

“They feel like we don’t respect them. And they feel they’ve taught us a lesson.

“So the next move is on us.”

Asked if the Lakers would have to play better to beat Portland, Jackson laughed and replied: “No, did you see Portland play? They played the last two games that weren’t so pretty themselves.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Series

LAKERS vs. PHOENIX

Lakers win Western Conference series, 4-1

GAME 1

Lakers: 105

Suns: 77

GAME 2

Lakers: 97

Suns: 96

GAME 3

Lakers: 105