It’s Back to the Drawing Board for the Lakers

With the Lakers and Utah Jazz, it’s always all about a final period.

As in: Utah destroys the Lakers in the last 12 minutes.

Final. Period.

Disregarding the hair colors involved, the point-guard permutations, the coach or the fist-pumping emotion flowing through the Great Western Forum, the Utah Jazz once again found the means to unravel the Lakers in the fourth quarter, bursting through for a 106-93 victory on Tuesday night.

Utah outscored the Lakers, 32-18, in the fourth, transforming a gutty Laker three-quarter performance into another Jazz recital.

“That was a collapse in our defense, it didn’t have anything to do with Shandon Anderson [who scored 12 points in the fourth],” Laker Coach Kurt Rambis said.

“We didn’t execute our game plan, guys were supposed to stay with their [men] and [they] started falling asleep, coming up with their own system of how to play defense instead of sticking with what we had in mind.

“We did a pretty good job up until then too.”

Anderson keyed a Jazz 13-6 sprint to open the fourth, scoring eight points on easy layups after back-door cuts to the basket.

Midway through the period, Rambis took out Kobe Bryant, who was guarding Anderson, for a few minutes, but that did not stem the flow.

After the game, several Laker players stewed at their lockers.

Glen Rice refused comment, and Shaquille O’Neal was point blank, if refusing to be specific about Laker players who had failed defensively.

“The school I come from, a guy isn’t doing his job, you take him out of the game--immediately,” O’Neal said. “We just didn’t play defense.

“We don’t play defense, we’re not going to go anywhere. We obviously want to beat them, but they took advantage of our mistakes, like they always do.”

Rambis deferred an answer when asked if he removed Bryant for defensive purposes.

“I’m not going to get into that,” Rambis said.

O’Neal also did not name Bryant.

“That’s Kurt’s job,” O’Neal said. “When somebody doesn’t do the job, Kurt is going to do the right thing.”

Dating to last postseason, it was the fourth consecutive Jazz victory on the Lakers’ home floor, pulled off with the same combination of denial defense and strategic offense.

“Bottom line is they beat us playing their game,” said Laker forward Rick Fox, who scored 19 points--15 in the second half. “And they took us out of our game. To be quite honest with you, I’m not sure what is our game.”

Rodman, when asked about the play of a few of his teammates, said: “If you are going to commit yourself to play basketball, then play basketball. If you are not going to play, then you should sit down and don’t play. Don’t even bother coming.”

At the end of three increasingly passionate and well-played quarters, the Lakers held a one-point lead, 75-74, and the stage was set for a frantic fourth.

Then, as the Jazz has done against the Lakers for what seems like decades, it kicked into a higher gear to start the final lap.

Utah went on a typically precise rush, outscoring the Lakers, 13-6, with wide-open jumpers, hard cuts, crisp passes and several layups.

Anderson scored his first six points of the game, all on layups, in that stretch.

O’Neal, in foul trouble again for the second straight game, picked up his fifth foul on a crunching body-slam of Karl Malone with 5:50 left to play, the Lakers trailing, 87-83.

O’Neal came out, J.R. Reid went in, and Anderson continued to strafe the Lakers, even after Rambis took out Bryant for a spell and sent in Rice to defend Anderson.

Rice fouled Anderson on a drive with 4:02 left, and Anderson’s ninth and 10th points of the game and the quarter gave Utah a 93-85 lead.

Malone had 19 of his game-high 30 points in the second half and was a perfect 12 for 12 from the field.

The lilting Lakers needed a little electricity, and they got it in their littlest point guard, 6-foot Tyronn Lue, activated only a day earlier and looking as if he had about 10 years of pent-up energy in his legs.

With Derek Fisher limping on a sore knee, Lue entered in the second quarter with the Lakers trailing, 29-22, and gave the Lakers something they hadn’t seen all season:

Bolting, jolting speed from their point guard, enough to launch the fastbreak, dribble past Howard Eisley and John Stockton, feed O’Neal after penetration, and generally intensify the Laker focus.

On the first two Laker possessions of his outing, Lue had assists, first to Robert Horry for a layup and a foul, then to Horry for a slam dunk.

It took off from there.

With the Forum crowd crooning his name--”Loooooooo”--the rookie from Nebraska played the last 9:48 of the first half, and the Lakers outscored the Jazz, 29-21, in that span, and went into halftime with a 51-50 lead.

O’Neal overpowered the Jazz for 21 first-half points, making eight of 14 shots, five of eight free throws, and grabbing six rebounds.

LAKER RECORD vs. TEAMS ABOVE .500: 8-6

LAKER RECORD vs. TEAMS .500 OR BELOW: 15-7

QUICKNESS: Tyronn Lue says that, whatever playing time he gets, he’ll try to emphasize his speed. Page 4

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TONIGHT at Sacramento, 7:30, Channel 9