Lakers Rescued at End by Rice

PHOENIX —  It was an attempted Kidd-napping, and the Lakers looked like they were trapped.

No air, no room, no visible way out. Help!

The Lakers sweated through a terrible time here Friday, lousing up a six-point lead in the last minutes, as Jason Kidd and the Phoenix Suns fed the flame and the America West Arena crowd crackled.

Then, in the haze, Glen Rice shot a look to Robert Horry, grabbed a perfect inbounds pass, shook loose from Danny Manning, squared up and buried a 17-footer with 7.1 seconds left to play.

And the Lakers scrambled to a 91-90 victory, relieved and gobbling up the fresh air.

“I gave him a quick little show to the baseline and pulled up on him,” said Rice, who finished with a team-high 23 points. “I knew it was in.

“That’s a wide-open shot, I’ve got to hit that.”

Rice hit it, the Laker defense kept Kidd from shooting in the Suns’ final desperate possession, and then the Lakers (22-11) flew home, knowing full well the magnitude of their escape.

This was the kickoff to a rigorous stretch of five games in six nights, which continues tonight at the Great Western Forum against the Golden State Warriors.

“We kept it close,” said center Shaquille O’Neal, “and our shooter saved the day.”

This was not exactly the moment or the game the Lakers wanted it to happen--they led the struggling Suns by as much as 10 late in the third quarter, only to succumb to several Phoenix charges.

But Rice’s silky shot, O’Neal pointed out, was exactly why they traded for him last month.

Actually, it wasn’t even the exact play called--Coach Kurt Rambis’ first option for Horry was to give it to Kobe Bryant at the top of the key, but the Suns rushed to deny him the ball.

Rice, the No. 2 option, was left relatively unhindered, needing only to break down Manning to find the opening.

“I’m just glad we’ve got a deadly shooter like Glen Rice,” said O’Neal, the leading player proponent for acquiring Rice.

“I’m glad I’m the general manager of this team. I’ve got this team just the way I want it.”

Rice was still fighting the cold that kept him out of the last two Laker practices, and said he got tired a few times during Friday’s game and had to ask out.

But he was in at the end, and when he is in, he usually is firing.

“I want to shoot the ball,” Rice said. “I want the ball when the game’s on the line. . . .

“[On the last play,] me and Robert had a little eye contact. I was going to get the ball. I was going to curl as hard as possible, and once I got open, I was either going to take it to the hole or I was going to raise up on whoever was on me.”

The Lakers built their lead not on pure shooting, but by spreading the ball around--Derek Harper had the team’s first 10-assist performance, seldom-used forward J.R. Reid scored 14 points in 14 minutes--and by playing defense.

The most notable defensive performance was, surprise, turned in by Bryant, who was the last Laker asked to try to halt the Kidd rampage.

Though Kidd continued to hurt the Lakers--he finished with 23 points and nine assists and put the Suns ahead with a driving three-point play with 11.3 seconds left--Bryant contained Kidd for long segments as the Lakers turned a 71-70 deficit at the end of the third quarter into an 87-81 lead.

“I truly believe at some point in time, he can be a stopper for us,” Rambis said of Bryant, who finished with 18 points, two steals, two blocked shots and four assists.

Said Bryant: “Why not? There’s so many facets of this game, so many dimensions to this game, why not try to learn them all?”

Bryant, though, had his chances to seal the game offensively in the final minutes, but dribbled into trouble and watched Phoenix race back upcourt after misses.

Forward Cliff Robinson led the Suns with 30 points, making 10 of 14 shots. He had 21 points in the first half.

Bryant was as relieved as any Laker when Rice’s shot swished through.

“Even when they went up, I think everybody was very calm, everybody was just relaxed,” Bryant said. “We knew we could hit the shot. . . .

“That’s the beauty of this team, you’ve got to guard everybody out there.”