Bryant, Shaq Can’t Do It All

PORTLAND, Ore. — I’m not sure which stinks worse, Dennis Rodman’s rip job on Shaquille O’Neal in his new book, or the aroma coming from the Rose Garden after the way most of the Lakers played against the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 3 of their playoff series Wednesday night. Either way, things sure did turn nasty in a hurry.

Rodman tore into O’Neal as a commercial “whore,” calling him pathetic. Then, in the game, most of O’Neal’s teammates played pathetically, falling behind by 31 points.

Thank heavens for Kobe Bryant, who crashed Portland’s party and played the game of his young NBA life, bringing the Lakers back within six. This kid has been riding the Laker bench, but he might not ride it much longer.

After watching four of his five starters sleepwalk through the first half, while O’Neal seemed to be fending off the Trail Blazers by himself, Del Harris became so exasperated that the Laker coach put rookies Bryant, Travis Knight and Derek Fisher on the floor simultaneously before halftime, figuring they couldn’t do any worse than four of his five starters.

Good move. Bryant turned out to be L.A.’s only saving grace. Kobe came out of hibernation, played 27 minutes, scored 22 points and practically scared the headband right off Clifford Robinson’s head, personally leading the way as the Lakers sawed 25 points off Portland’s huge lead.

On a night the Lakers were looking for a series sweep, Elden Campbell, Robert Horry, Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel combined during the first half for a total of one basket. One.

Even more embarrassing, the Lakers were absolutely riddled by Portland guard Kenny Anderson, who sank shot after shot--often unguarded--while his wife, MTV’s “Real World” star Tami Anderson, sat in the audience, clapping. Portland’s team owner, Paul Allen, all but jumped out of his jeans at one point, cackling at the Trail Blazers’ opening up a 26-point lead during the second quarter.

That’s when L.A.’s own MTV generation arrived.

Idle during most of Games 1 and 2, Bryant pulled off his purple warmup, sprang onto the court and scored more points before halftime than Campbell, Horry, Jones and Van Exel did together.

Leaving him out there, going with a hot hand even if it’s only an 18-year-old hand, Harris saw six months of on-the-job training bear fruit as Bryant played like an NBA old pro. The kid was beautiful. He made more baskets than any Laker other than Shaq. He outrebounded Campbell. He made half of the team’s three-pointers, while Van Exel hit nothing but air.

Rallying around him, some of the other Laker reserves came to life, with Jerome Kersey pulling down 10 rebounds against his former club. They made a tremendous run, beginning the fourth quarter down 84-58, but finding themselves down only 94-88 with less than a minute to play.

If this game had gone two minutes longer, the Lakers might have won it and Bryant probably would have taken care of that, personally.

You couldn’t blame this game on him or on O’Neal, who came through with 29 points, 12 boards and as many assists as anybody on the Laker squad, including Jones and Van Exel.

O’Neal remains no big deal, however, to Rodman, who in his latest contribution to literature writes: “Shaquille O’Neal not only whores himself out to a million sponsors, but acts like a damn fool. . . . He might as well dress up like a Pepsi can when he plays. No one should want to sell a product that bad. . . . It’s pathetic.”

Rodman goes on to say:

“I know he can dunk and all that, but I think he’s all flash. To me, he’s a wanna-be. . . . Like a lot of players, I find him easy to mess with, because he takes himself so damn seriously.”

Shaq doesn’t care to respond, other than that he does hope to run into Rodman during the NBA finals.

I don’t know if the Lakers can get that far. But if they do, I’m beginning to think that it could be an 18-year-old who takes them there.