A Toast to Lakers, Who Almost Got Burned

First, a city sighs.

Whew. Mercy. Thank goodness.

Now, a city screams.

Lakers, if you ever, ever put us through that nonsense again . . .

Los Angeles’ precocious child of the moment climbed safely down off the high limb Friday, its glaring sense of purpose equaled only by the constant Staples Center roar that accompanied it.

The Lakers climbed down with passion, with persistence, with a 27-point victory that landed them back on level ground with only one thing undecided.

Do we hug them or scold them?

The Lakers were at their demoralizing best in a 113-86 knockout of the Sacramento Kings in the deciding Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.

A game that should not have been played.

The Lakers climbed on Shaquille O’Neal’s back and swatted their way through purple jerseys as he carried them long into the night.

A night they should have been resting.

The beating was so convincing, the loudspeakers blared “I Love L.A.” with 10:03 remaining in the game.

A song that was one game from being silenced for the summer.

A couple of hours from a startling vacation, the Lakers wake up with morning with at least another week’s worth of work, probably more.

That is, if their loving fans don’t wake up, think about the last two weeks, and strangle them first.

“We came out mad,” Derek Fisher said. “We wanted to deliver a knockout blow early.”

The good news for the Lakers is that their second-round opponent, Phoenix, doesn’t match up well and should not last long.

The bad news is, after watching the Lakers go momentarily soft against the Kings, can’t you just see Portland fighting for next?

And after what happened around here the last two weeks, will we dare to again mention this year’s ring before actually seeing it glow on O’Neal’s finger?

Despite Friday’s mad rush before 18,997 Staples Center fans, the truth was as plain as the sweat that dripped from the Lakers’ chins to the floor.

This road to an NBA championship, once thought to be smooth and fast, apparently must be navigated corner to corner, alley to alley, push after shove.

At least we now know the Lakers can do the alley thing.

“We know this group can overcome adversity,” Kobe Bryant said with audible relief.

The first shots in this deciding game were fired a day earlier from on high, when King co-owner Joe Maloof called Phil Jackson “damn arrogant.”

Jackson fired back early Friday evening by noting the Maloof family’s ownership of a Las Vegas casino.

“He’s a character builder.” he said.

The attention then turned to the court, with the loose underdogs bouncing on the other side of the floor from the slowly pacing favorites.

“We’re right there,” claimed John Salley, a veteran of several series-deciding games. “We’re right where we’re supposed to be.”

Still, after twice being knocked far from there in Sacramento earlier this week, you wondered . . .

For all of 18 seconds.

They say NBA games are rarely decided at the end of the first quarter. This one was decided before that.

Eighteen seconds into it, O’Neal showed his hand with a quick jumper over Divac.

There was no more fatigue. There was no more doubt. It was one shot, but it spoke for many.

“Get on them from the jump,” Glen Rice said. “That was our plan. We were very focused.”

The Kings then showed their hand with bad misses on three consecutive possessions.

Then it was time for the officials to show their hand. You guessed they would. Having obviously watched tape of the two King victories--tape provided by NBC?--the striped shirts decided their double-teaming defense that stopped Shaq was illegal.

So they called it. Twice in the first two minutes. Rice made the technical foul shot after the second infraction, and the Kings’ defense was never the same.

With so much riding on this game for the league and its reputation, you wondered if the Lakers would get a little help.

Turns out, they didn’t really need it.

They obviously figured out the equation on their own.

A career game, or a career embarrassment.

Remember Rice? Did little more in Sacramento than hang around like a unemployed lobbyist?

Rice came out running and, well, not gunning but giving it up. He had as many assists in the first half Friday--four--as in those two games combined.

Remember A.C. Green? C’mon, it hasn’t been that long, has it? Tall guy, wears a bear on his head?

In Game 4, he was about as active as that toy bear. On Friday, though, he was a bear, fighting for rebounds he barely touched three days earlier, making cross-court assists punctuated by leaping celebrations.

Remember Fisher? After not even playing in Game 4, it turns out, he also remembers us, scampering around the court the way he did for Del Harris, providing the perfect counter-punch for Laker demon Tony Delk.

It was like that for everybody on the suddenly awakened Laker bench in a win so impressive, the only person who didn’t do anything flashy was Kobe Bryant, and it didn’t matter.

The Kings left town having lost the deciding game of a first-round series for the second time in two seasons, but their point was made.

Chris Webber is a great player. Rick Adelman is a fine coach. Their bench behaves like starters. Their fans are the loudest in the league.

But this series’ most enduring image will not be of them, but of Shaquille O’Neal, running downcourt after hitting a little jumper in the third quarter to give the Lakers a 15-point lead, screaming like he hasn’t screamed in weeks.

Screaming like all of us.

Probably for all sorts of reasons.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.