When It’s All Said and Done, Lakers Prevail

SACRAMENTO —  Iceberg ahead!

It appeared on the horizon the day before, with a practice Coach Del Harris called “frivolous” and a concern that his Lakers were still celebrating the game before instead of preparing for the game ahead. It came into full view Sunday afternoon: the Sacramento Kings, without all-star Mitch Richmond, still capable of doing so much damage.

Talk about that sinking feeling. The Lakers, rightfully pleased after beating the Seattle SuperSonics on Friday, nearly replaced those gains with a disastrous loss before swerving just in time, going from 14 points behind in the third quarter to a 96-93 victory over the Richmond-less Kings before 17,317 at Arco Arena.

“Coming off beating Seattle and Phoenix last week, hearing that Mitch Richmond was out, our guys probably thought it was going to be easier than it was,” Harris said. “Fortunately, we awakened during the game instead of on the plane to Denver.”

With Richmond sidelined because of a sore right knee, the Kings started an all-rookie backcourt, a power forward at center and used 6-foot-7 Corliss Williamson against Shaquille O’Neal for part of the fourth quarter and still weren’t overwhelmed. Anything but. They led the entire first quarter, needing less than 10 minutes to build a double-digit lead on an opponent that came in having won eight of nine.

They also led the entire second quarter.

The Lakers didn’t get their first lead until 33 seconds remained in the third period. And even then they couldn’t put the Kings away, unable to manage anything more than two eight-point advantages, the last with 1:06 left.

What should have been an insurmountable lead--the Lakers supposedly playing well of late, the Kings losers of six in a row, without having scored 90 points in five of those--instead became an opportunity for more than an L.A. loss. Try a collapse.

After Terry Dehere’s two free throws with 58 seconds to go cut the deficit to 92-88, the Lakers were unable to the get the ball back in play called a timeout just before getting a five-second violation. They advanced the ball to midcourt for the next try, even changed trigger men from Robert Horry to Eddie Jones, but then Jones threw the pass away. Anthony Johnson intercepted, was fouled before he could go in for a layup, made two more from the line, and Harris gestured to Jones that he should have called another timeout.

It was a two-point game with 56.7 seconds to play. The Lakers again tried it from the baseline, and again nearly threw it away. Dehere got a hand on the pass, but the ball went out of bounds. This time, finally, the Lakers broke the press.

The result was Jones’ missed three-point shot, but Kobe Bryant was fouled while going for the tip and made two free throws. This came on the same possession when, with the Kings using a small lineup, Williamson was defending O’Neal inside.

But O’Neal never touched the ball.

When Williamson was fouled about 10 seconds later and made only one free throw, and Bryant went one of two in each of his next two trips to the line, the Lakers were in the clear at last, at 95-91 with 7.3 seconds to play. It came with O’Neal scoring nine of his game-high 33 points in the final period.

It also came with another spark off the bench from Nick Van Exel, the second time in a week, the second time in his five games since returning after a knee injury, that has happened. It also may not be the last--Van Exel said he wants to remain as a reserve for the rest of the season, all-star credentials or not, Harris’ desires or not.

“Because of the energy,” Van Exel said. “I can be another spark plug off the bench. I think it’s working now. It’s something I like. I think it’s going to be good for the team.

“I pretty much have told him [Harris] he’s going to have to tell me to start. I’m not going to go to him and tell him I want to.”

Van Exel had 19 points in his best showing of the five games, and for the third time in a row played more minutes than starter Derek Fisher. Van Exel had 30 minutes against the Kings, compared to 18 for Fisher, and more significantly 18 of the 24 in the second half.