Different State of Mind

SAN ANTONIO —  They think it will be different here, where the locals are redoing the billboards for the occasion, yet another Game 5 in another Western Conference semifinals in another springtime.

A year ago, this is about where it went wrong for the Lakers, or where the evidence arrived that they’d grown too old, too predictable, too fragile.

The Lakers lost Game 5 at SBC Center when Robert Horry’s three-point shot rimmed out, then barely showed for Game 6 at Staples Center, ending their run of championships at three and propelling the San Antonio Spurs to their NBA title, David Robinson’s retirement party and a rigorous off-season themselves.

So, here they are again, a do-over made in television heaven, the Lakers and Spurs tied at two games apiece, Game 5 tonight in San Antonio, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant having fallen into each other’s arms again, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker sure they left their games around here somewhere.

The Lakers have never won a playoff game in the Spurs’ new arena, built out among the warehouses on the outskirts of town. Five chances have come and gone, two of them last week, both 10-point losses, neither anything the Lakers were proud of.

There were recent postseasons when the Lakers, and Bryant in particular, would play their best in road games, drawing life and resolve from the harsh crowds and the purple uniforms with black socks. But they are 1-3 on the road this season and 3-7 over two seasons, their total game not quite taut enough to hold together.

“A different year,” O’Neal said Wednesday afternoon before rushing off to the back entrance at LAX. “Different players.”

But, as it turned out, the same emphasis. The promise that their offense would be strewn over four players, not two, largely has been forgotten. Karl Malone and Gary Payton are equals for two or three quarters, but the fourth quarter still belongs to O’Neal and Bryant.

Surely the Spurs spent their day off considering again how to defend the Original Two after Bryant and O’Neal combined for 70 of the Lakers’ 98 points in Game 4. Surely Gregg Popovich is counting on his superstars to star and his jump shooters to shoot, just as they had in Games 1 and 2.

The Lakers too are sure they have more in them. A day after the most dramatic thing many of them had ever seen on a basketball court, Bryant’s wearisome day in court followed by 42 points, there was little sense that anything had turned. The Spurs still can advance by winning out at home. The Lakers still must win a game in San Antonio.

“They’re a great home team, and I know they’re going to be tough on their home floor,” Bryant said. “They play with more energy. They play with more confidence. The shots they weren’t making here will probably go down in San Antonio. So, we can’t play as carefree or get wrapped up in the momentum as we do at home. We have to play more of an intellectual game, where we play our parts. They’re going to be tough to beat on their home floor. So, it’s on us to go there and try to take the air out of the game.

“My biggest concern is we’ll play, we’ll attempt to play, the same type of style on the road as we did here at home.... It’s something we can’t do. Home basketball and road basketball are two completely different animals. So we have to attack it differently. Our game plan might change slightly, but the mentality when we go on the road has to be different.”

The main difference, as O’Neal sees it: At home he turns off Mulholland to Beverly Glen, right on Ventura, left on Coldwater Canyon.

Today, he said, “They’re going to be comfortable driving down their streets.”

The Lakers won twice in San Antonio during the regular season. They won a game in Houston during the first round. After weeks in which their offensive emphasis was scattered, leading to uneven efforts, two of those in San Antonio, O’Neal is again prominent, and they believe that will lead to consistency.

“We’ve just got to keep playing the way we’re playing,” Payton said.

O’Neal has averaged nearly 30 points and 15 rebounds in his last three games. He seems to have found something somewhat reliable at the free-throw line and he is lively on defense. He blocked 12 shots in two games against the Spurs in Los Angeles. But, again, that was Los Angeles. This is San Antonio.

“Now’s the time we both know each other very, very well as basketball teams,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “Now’s the time for execution that will bring a winner to the game.

“We need to maintain a different direction.”