O'Neal and Bryant Score Big Points Beyond the Basket

By J.A. ADANDE

May 28, 2000 12 AM PT

PORTLAND, Ore. — As devastating a duo as Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant form, they don’t compare to the powerful combination of trust and confidence.

The Lakers emerged with a little bit more faith in one another--in addition to a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven series with the Portland Trail Blazers--after their 93-91 victory in Game 3.

“We came together [Friday] night as a basketball club with complete understanding in that second half,” Coach Phil Jackson said.

It’s back to “we” now for Jackson, who had taken to referring to the players as “they” when the Lakers plummeted in Sacramento in the first round. The use of those telling pronouns wasn’t lost on some NBA observers. They noted that Jackson was one of the few coaches who could get away with such usage without causing a mutiny.

But it’s always been up to this group to prove something to him. He arrived with a reputation for winning, while the players carried a tag of underachievers.

Jackson still was uncertain of his team’s ability to respond to the challenge, until they overcame an early 13-point hole to win in the hostile Rose Garden.

“On the road, we hadn’t shown that kind of muster to bring it back from a 10-point deficit,” Jackson said. “We’ve done it on the road--in Seattle, against Miami--[against] some other very good teams during the course of the year. But that’s just not playoff basketball. Playoffs, it’s a little bit different. And we hadn’t shown that.”

Jackson was asked if he had learned something about his players. And in the spirit of sharing that had engulfed this ballclub, he passed on the opportunity and pointed the attention elsewhere.

“They learned something about themselves,” Jackson said. “I think that’s what’s really important.”

“We learned,” Glen Rice said, “that if we play the way we played in the second half, keep everything in control, continue to keep believing regardless of the situation, we’ve got a pretty good chance of winning.”

They won because they helped each other out on defense. Players could leave a man to double-team because they were confident their teammates would rotate to the open man.

They won because they put the game in the hands of their stars and the role players did enough to justify getting the ball back when needed.

“If we can get them to play like that, we’re a good team,” O’Neal said. “And me and Kobe can take care of the rest of it.”

If there was any doubt that the Lakers will go only as far as Shaq and Kobe take them, Friday night’s game should have taken care of that.

They combined for 51 points, with Bryant scoring 14 of his 25 points in the first quarter to keep the Lakers close.

O’Neal’s defense and his 18 points in the second half ignited the Laker comeback.

O’Neal played all 48 minutes and Bryant missed only the last 15.6 seconds of the third quarter.

“Those guys stayed in the game, first of all, stayed out of foul trouble, and then made big play after big play,” Rick Fox said. “When they do that, it deflates the opponent and also lifts the rest of the team up.”

The Lakers rely on their big two, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Counting on one star is tough. Using two of the best players in the game is usually the building blocks to championships.

“We’re a hip-hop generation [version] of Kareem and Magic,” O’Neal said.

“I think it’s real important to this team, that they found that niche, that they could cooperate together in a way that lifted the spirits of this team,” Jackson said. “We had a lot of guys that helped out in other situations. I think the confidence that they brought to the team is what boosted the spirits of the rest of the guys.”

Shaq once worried that Bryant wouldn’t share the ball enough and Kobe wondered if O’Neal would dedicate himself to winning. Somehow the big bull and the high-flying acrobat have found a way to occupy the same space with no one getting hurt.

“Every great team had a 1-2 punch,” O’Neal said. “Kobe and myself, we realize the 1-2 punch is me and him.”

Even in this series it took a while for the Lakers to realize their best offensive set was with Bryant and O’Neal playing a two-man game on one side of the court--especially when Damon Stoudamire guarded Bryant.

“When me and Kobe were on that side, they really couldn’t leave Kobe and they didn’t know when to come and double me,” O’Neal said.

Even when Stoudamire dropped down, at 5 feet 10 he was too small to give O’Neal problems.

That helped O’Neal get better looks at the basket.

And in crunch time, the Lakers have no problem giving the ball to a 21-year-old who didn’t play college basketball.

“I think my teammates trust me,” Bryant said. “They know when it comes to tight situations, they know I’m going to be there for them. They know I’m going to step up, and have the confidence in me to make the right decisions.”

This series will get tougher before it’s finished.

Once the Lakers recovered from that 15-2 deficit, they played about as well as possible on the road over a 40-minute stretch--and yet the Trail Blazers still had a chance to win or tie the game on their final possession.

But the Lakers escaped with both the “W” and a moral victory, because they have found trust.

It’s been building all season, and as Bryant said, “I think after last night, it grew some more.”

J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected].