Lakers Still Look Down at the Pacific

The Lakers’ uneven regular season ended evenly enough Tuesday night, with an eighth consecutive victory, news of a first-round NBA playoff matchup with the Portland Trail Blazers and Shaquille O’Neal at the free-throw line knocking down foul shots with unusual precision.

In one last formality, the Lakers defeated the Denver Nuggets, 108-91, at Staples Center, for a 56-26 record and their second consecutive Pacific Division title. The Sacramento Kings can match the Laker record tonight with a victory over the Nuggets, but the Lakers hold the tiebreaker and have clinched the No. 2 seeding.

So, the Western Conference playoffs pick up where they left off last season, with the Trail Blazers, in turmoil, looking for the points and the game to overturn the suddenly capable Lakers.

O’Neal made all 13 of his free throws, a personal best, scored 33 points, took 13 rebounds, shook the arena with a couple of cross-over dribbles and finished the season on an MVP-style roll. He scored at least 31 points in his final 11 games. As a result, partly, the Laker winning streak is the longest to end a season in franchise history.

“Portland is one of the best teams in the Western Conference still, and in order for us to win the conference championship we’re going to have to go through the best,” Laker guard Brian Shaw said. “We’re going to get tested in the first round, so we just have to be prepared and come ready to play. If we can get past that, we’ll be ready for whatever we have to face the rest of the way.”

It will help to be bringing a confident O’Neal. As he rested on the bench with the final minutes falling away, O’Neal made eye contact with Ed Palubinskas, his shooting coach, smiled and raised his eyebrows. Only four months ago, O’Neal had missed each of 11 free throws, breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time single-game record.

Asked how he did it, O’Neal said, “Because I felt like it. I can do it. I put in a lot of work.”

Laker Coach Phil Jackson entered the postgame news conference, sighed, and said, “Well, that wraps it up.”

Kobe Bryant scored 26 points, and the Lakers held the Nuggets to 40 second-half points, but the news was O’Neal and his free throws.

“That was a big thing for us, a high note of the evening for sure,” Jackson said. “[He was] very confident on the free-throw line. It was nice to see him there.”

There were 20 minutes left in their regular season, 20 minutes before the real defense of their championship would commence, and Bryant stood at the top of the key, basketball over his head, eyes on O’Neal.

O’Neal jab-stepped right and went to the basket. Bryant flung the ball on a long arc, an alley-oop pass that O’Neal grabbed and dunked in one powerful motion.

Bryant turned and grinned, clenched his fist and stuck out his tongue.

From the dreariness of a first half when they didn’t appear to expect much fight out of the Nuggets, the Lakers outscored Denver, 16-2, to start the second half.

“Our confidence is extremely high right now,” Bryant said. “We’re playing very good defensively. Today we came in at halftime and said that in the third quarter we’re going to have to have some stops to hold them down. We were able to do that. It’s one thing to say it and try to execute and have difficulty, but we were able to carry it out.”

Bryant wore his very yellow Adidas sneakers, the same ones he wore in the All-Star game. He calls them his “sunshines,” and wears them most practice days.

He scored 17 points in the first half, then eight in a frenetic first few minutes of the third quarter. On ankles that still aren’t exactly right, Bryant threw in a fastbreak dunk and a hanging, what-gravity? layup in a runaway quarter for the Lakers, who didn’t mind seeing the season end a quarter early.

Of them all, Bryant will most benefit from the break before the start of the first round this weekend.

“I think, defensively, I still see some improvement needed,” Jackson said. “Offensively, his shot’s a little flat. Other than that, he’s doing good.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

FIRST ROUND

Matchups for the Western Conference playoffs. The final Eastern Conference pairings will be decided tonight:

(1) San Antonio vs. (8) Minnesota

(2) Lakers vs. (7) Portland

(3) Sacramento vs. (6) Phoenix

(4) Utah vs. (5) Dallas

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ALSO

With a strong effort by its bench in the fourth quarter, San Antonio clinches the NBA’s best record with a 99-93 victory over Portland. D4

UTAH 97, CLIPPERS 92: D3