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June 20, 2000 By Rob Miech SportsLine.com Staff Writer |
LOS ANGELES -- Shaquille O'Neal might have bulldozed his way toward every individual award this season to solidify a championship for the Los Angeles Lakers, but the bit players also had tremendous timing.
Mirroring its chaotic, carrot-chasing season, L.A. lost each of the first three quarters Monday before bouncing back with a furious fourth quarter to seal the title with a 116-111 victory over the Indiana Pacers.
The Lakers pounded the Pacers 37-27 in the last 12 minutes. Money men O'Neal (13 points) and Kobe Bryant (eight), as usual, provided the foundation in the championship-clinching quarter.
Others, of course, applied the finishing touch, as Robert Horry matched Bryant with eight points in the fourth, while Derek Fisher and Rick Fox each hit big 3-pointers, and Glen Rice nailed two big free throws.
"I think the supporting cast stepped up big time," said Lakers assistant coach Tex Winter, architect of the triple-post offense that served as the backbone to a seventh NBA championship in 10 seasons. The first of six for the Chicago Bulls was secured in L.A. in 1991.
"It isn't a fair question, because this one isn't as good," said Winter, when asked to compare the Lakers' role players with the ones from any of the six Bulls champions. "This is a different type of team, with Shaq at the apex. Still, the supporting cast must shine to win, and it was tonight."
Phil Jackson, who coached the Bulls to those six titles, acknowledged the role of the non-marquee players on the Lakers.
"We have a bench that's probably better shooters, or scorers, from outside, than our starters," Jackson said. "That was a key to the season. We found a way to play a lot of players, and a lot of players could shoot."
O'Neal, too, recognized those around him moments after the Lakers defeated the Pacers when he said, twice, that he loved his teammates.
For sure, they love him, too, especially the ones who added to jewelry collections that already included a few rings.
That would be Ron Harper, Horry, A.C. Green and the answer to the newest trivia question, John Salley. Salley played 13 total minutes in the six-game Finals series, making two shots, but he's the first man to win championships with three teams.
He won titles with the Detroit Pistons and Bulls, and he got a big hug from Jackson not long after L.A. had sent the Pacers back home to Indiana.
"Nobody's better at being a good-luck charm," Salley said.
Green, a throwback to the Lakers' previous glory days, also helped. He won rings with the Lakers in 1987 and '88, in his second and third seasons in the league. And although he might not be able to start for any other team in the NBA, Jackson always had him on the floor at the tip-off.
Monday, all he did was hit two of the three shots he attempted, getting six points and five boards in 20 minutes. In the third quarter, he hit a 17-foot baseline jumper to get the Lakers to within 71-67, then he stole a ball and fed it to Rice, who sank a 3-pointer.
Hardly spectacular, but brilliantly solid.
The Lakers lost each of the first three quarters Monday, but they weren't about to put the rings on the line in a Game 7 on Wednesday. They slapped the Pacers around Staples with their resounding fourth quarter, which Fisher started with a 3-point shot.
That cut a six-point deficit to three, and there was nothing Indiana could do to douse Los Angeles in the ensuing 11 minutes.
Austin Croshere drilled a 3-pointer -- with Shaq going out on him, no less -- to boost Indiana to a 90-86 lead, but L.A. answered with a 13-2 run that started to make believers out of a rabble-rousing crowd.
Horry hit two 3-point shots and Fox sank one of his own in that stretch, but Indiana still had the resolve to fight back to a 103-103 tie.
Jackson called for a timeout, and Horry provided the basket that gave the Lakers the lead for good, with less than five minutes left, on a savvy runner in the lane.
Even then, the Lakers couldn't rest easy as Indiana scored six consecutive points to get to within 110-109. But Dale Davis fouled Rice after Rice missed a shot, and he put in two key free throws that wound up being all the points the Lakers would need.
Rice finished with 16 points -- as usual, the Lakers' third-leading scorer, and the only other one besides the Big Duo to hit double figures in scoring.
After the floor had been soaked, Harper returned to a tunnel to pop yet another cork, light a stogie and sing something about "West side! West side!" with a small group of friends.
Harper had reason to sigh, having missed a layin midway through the fourth quarter and coming right back with a drive to the hoop reminiscent of his high-flying days in Cleveland.
The knees don't have the same spring, but he'll take another ring. Davis turned back the dunk attempt, although it appeared the front of the rim would have done the same. That's when Croshere nailed his 3-pointer to tie it 103-103.
Not long afterward, though, Harper stole a Miller pass, and Shaq turned it into a turn-around jumper for a 107-103 advantage.
"This team can win two or three more championships," said Harper, who has said he will contemplate long and hard about honoring the second and final year of his contract next season.
"We're going to be the best team for a while," Horry said.
Horry will be right, if the supporting cast continues to thrive the way it did in 1999-2000. Shaq and Kobe are only as strong as the players who surround them. And in Jackson's first season in Los Angeles, that was pretty good.
The official site of Shaquille O'Neal
Robert Horry and the rest of the L.A. bench played a big role in the Lakers' title. (AP)
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