Lakers Make Themselves Heard in End

SALT LAKE CITY —  The Lakers have seven games left. They have one superstar left. And Tuesday night, with all but two weeks of a full regular season behind them, they showed they have a little fight left.

“But, you know,” Derek Fisher said, “we have an uncanny knack for taking one step forward and two back.”

On to Chicago.

But first, the Lakers defeated the Utah Jazz, 96-88, at the Delta Center to start a four-game trip.

“We wanted at least two wins on this road trip,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said, “and this has given us a good chance.”

Small goals first.

For a change, they had the late run, outscoring the Jazz, 8-0, with the racket deafening and Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan screaming obscenities that’ll surely cost him, with Kobe Bryant in a gray suit at the end of the bench, J.R. Rider benched for missing the team bus and Shaquille O’Neal in foul trouble.

They had the late defensive stops, a steal and a dunk by Robert Horry, a steal by Fisher, a hand in a face and the other in a passing lane.

Dying for a turn of fortune that might bring a home series or two in the playoffs, the Lakers gained a game on the Sacramento Kings, Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns in the Pacific Division, and a game on the Jazz in the Western Conference. They evened the season series against the Jazz at two victories each. They took an 86-84 lead, made it 94-84 only 90 seconds later, watched Sloan get ejected part way through it, shushed a crowd that swallowed its throaty “Beat L.A.!” and walked away happy and, maybe, a little suspicious.

Never again, it seems, will the Lakers declare themselves cured of the malaise that has gripped their title defense. Already they have seen too many victories against the San Antonio Spurs dashed by losses to the Atlanta Hawks, victories over the Dallas Mavericks doused by defeat against the Golden State Warriors.

So they took 38 points from their reserves, 20 by Horry. They took O’Neal’s 31 points, 14 in the fourth quarter. They took 10 points by Mike Penberthy. They played through 31 points and 14 rebounds by Karl Malone, tried to hold off everyone else, fought a little harder on defense and didn’t try too hard to explain any of it.

“I don’t want to hear that name again,” Horace Grant said of Malone, “unless it’s in the conference finals. Especially here at home.”

O’Neal has a sore left knee. He hurt it Sunday against the New York Knicks and Tuesday wore a black sleeve on it. He took two fouls in the first quarter, when he played five minutes. He played nine minutes in the second quarter and four in the third, at which point he had 17 points, seven rebounds and had shot only two free throws.

Still, the Lakers were holding up against the ageless Malone-John Stockton duo and the reborn Donyell Marshall. They did not trail after the 9:33 mark of the second quarter, when Penberthy made a 26-foot shot from the top for a 27-25 lead. Penberthy made three three-point shots, Horry made four and Fisher scored 17 points.

But, in the end, when the place was loud, they found O’Neal.

“Luckily, I was able to make some shots at the end,” said O’Neal, who made five of nine shots and four of nine free throws in the fourth quarter, when he terrorized Malone and Greg Ostertag. “It took me a while to get going on the free-throw line, but usually I make them in the fourth quarter whether I’m stroking it or not. My teammates did a hell of a job in the first three quarters and I woke up there late in the fourth.”

Asked if the slow start was due to his knee, O’Neal nodded.

Horry played 31 minutes, five short of his season high. He did a reasonable defensive job on Malone, at times. He had three steals, the last followed by a dash down the court and a dunk that put the Laker lead at 92-84.

“It was nice to see Robert have a game like that,” Grant said.

At the end of an odd season, Horry looked a little more athletic and very competitive. Malone bloodied his nose after a late rebound, and still he played on.

“Everybody was out there playing hard and when you got shots, take them,” Horry said. “We didn’t do anything better, they just didn’t do anything better. We kind of coaxed it out.”

It was all pretty annoying to Sloan, who received his first technical with 3:35 to play and his second about two minutes later.

“I didn’t like the way the official was visiting with the other team, quite frankly,” Sloan said. “I still have a ballgame going on and whenever it looks like we’re out of it and they have control of it, it becomes a joke to them and I have a tough time with that.”

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