WASHINGTON -- Jerry Stackhouse had no problem counting to 2.9. His dunk at the buzzer left the Los Angeles Lakers counting to three, as in three straight losses.
Throwing an inbounds pass with 2.9 seconds left, Stackhouse got it back on a give-and-go with Byron Russell. With Michael Jordan as a decoy, Stackhouse found an open path to the basket and arrived just in time to give the Washington Wizards a 100-99 victory Friday night.
"Two-point-nine seconds is a lot of time," Stackhouse said. "I felt like I had time to get there. If I saw somebody under there I might have pulled up, but nobody was there."
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| Jerry Stackhouse, center, is restrained by teammate Michael Jordan after being called for a first-quarter foul as Los Angeles Lakers' Samaki Walker stands at right Friday, Nov. 8, 2002, in Washington. (AP) |
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Stackhouse scored 29 points, stealing the show from Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Jordan scored a season-high 25 points and played well for 3½ quarters, but he made a bad foul with 25 seconds left and missed two free throws in the final 20 seconds.
"I missed some easy free throws," said Jordan, who played 30 minutes and shot 9-of-14. "Obviously, you never want to be in a position where you have a chance to help the team and you don't help them."
Yet, Jordan was a key player on the game-winning play. He took his defender to the weakside, keeping the Lakers from collapsing on the basket to stop Stackhouse.
"Everybody was looking at me as if I was an option," Jordan said "I was more or less a decoy."
Stackhouse's dunk was reviewed by officials under the NBA's new instant replay rule. The tape showed Stackhouse made the dunk two-tenths of a second before the buzzer.
Bryant struggled until the homestretch, but his block of Jordan's baseline jump shot helped spur a 10-0 run as the Lakers overcame a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit. Bryant, following Thursday's 17-for-47 performance in an overtime loss at Boston, was 8-for-21 from the field and 11-for-11 from the free-throw line for 27 points. He played on a sore shin, which got kicked in the Celtics game.
Bryant is 30-for-81 from the field during the three-game skid.
The Lakers got a boost from Rick Fox, who returned from a six-game suspension for a fight in the preseason to score 20 points in a reserve role in his first regular-season action. But Shaquille O'Neal is still out with a toe injury, and said before the game that he needs another "one or two weeks" to recover from the surgery he had in September.
"I'm not pleased with the way we're playing," Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson said. "There's a limitation to how well we can play without Shaquille, and the people understand that.
"I was downplaying when I said we might start 0-7, 1-6 or 2-5. But here we are 2-5, and it's not a surprise to me. I know the talent this team has. We have a great player in Kobe, and we have a team that fits together with Shaquille, so it's built around that. Without him out there, we're kind of batting away without a hope to hit too many home runs."
Stackhouse's game-winner came after the Lakers took their only lead of the game at 99-98 when Robert Horry made a 3-pointer at the 2.9-second mark.
Although they were rarely matched up most of the game, Jordan and Bryant went toe-to-toe down the stretch. Bryant moved by Jordan for a running one-hander that capped a run that put the Lakers within two at 88-86 with 3:44 to play.
In the second quarter, Jordan aggressively backed Bryant with the dribble before hitting a fadeaway 18-footer, part of an 8-2 run that closed the half and put the Wizards ahead 49-40.
The Lakers pulled within four twice in the third quarter, but Stackhouse literally flung the ball in the basket from 18 feet at the third-quarter buzzer, bringing the fans to their feet and giving the Wizards a 74-60 lead.
Then, they survived the Lakers' rally in the fourth.
"The team last year would have folded down the stretch," Jordan said. "This year, we stood tall."
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