Lakers Finally Leave It All On the Court

Game 3 Win Comes After 2 Poor Efforts: Lakers 105, Spurs 81

LOS ANGELES, May 9 -- It started in the first quarter with Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant diving for a loose ball San Antonio Spurs forward Hedo Turkoglu couldn't handle. Shaquille O'Neal, all 7 feet 1 and 340 pounds of him, joined Bryant in the fumble-recovery bid, except O'Neal plunged into Turkoglu's legs and drew a foul. No matter, the floor-burn hustle by the Lakers' two biggest stars in a game where the stakes were immeasurable ignited passions that emphasized the sense of purpose.

From there, the Lakers systematically deconstructed the Spurs and rediscovered the finer points of their game to snap San Antonio's 17-game winning streak with a 105-81 blowout Sunday at Staples Center.

Los Angeles earned its first win in the crucial third game of this Western Conference semifinal after losing the first two games to the defending champion on its home court. Those blemishes drew such criticism and doubt that Coach Phil Jackson proclaimed Sunday's contest to be so important that his team's existence hinged on the outcome.

"It set the tempo, it set the sense of urgency that we needed to play with and I think the rest of the guys followed suit," said Bryant (22 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals) of his and O'Neal's crowd-stirring play.

"It sparked us. It set the tone and let everybody know how big this game was."

That diving scramble came amid an 11-0, first-quarter run that left the Lakers up by 12 entering the second quarter. The Spurs got as close as seven just before halftime when forward Tim Duncan, held to a measly 10 points, scored his first points with 1 minute 15 seconds left in the half. However, the Lakers built their lead to 23 late in the third quarter and then, after a mirage of a run early in the fourth period got San Antonio within 12, Los Angeles closed with a fury, taking leads as great as 28.

"They just drubbed us," San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich said. "The aggressive team wins in the NBA and I thought they were aggressive from the beginning. They knocked us off our spots, did a great job defensively. For our part, we had one guy play well and he's not a starter and that's Devean George, he played a good game. I can't think of another player who had a good game.

"Did I say Devean George? He's on the other team. Devin Brown [16 points] on our team played well. I told you we were discombobulated."

Los Angeles, on Tuesday night, will try to do as it did last season when it won a pair of home games after losing the first two games of the conference semis at San Antonio. The Lakers ended up losing in six games and the Spurs went on to win the NBA title, but these are two different teams, with Los Angeles replacing its role players with likely Hall of Famers Gary Payton and Karl Malone and the Spurs bolstering their good-guys, defensive-minded lineup with relative no-names after center David Robinson's retirement.

So far, San Antonio seemed to have the better mix -- and still might. But on this afternoon, the potent quartet of Payton, Malone, O'Neal and Bryant lived up to their reputations, playing like great players with pride -- something surprisingly absent in their two losses to the Spurs.

"Everybody came here waiting to see what Laker team was going to show up, how hard we were going to play and they got an answer," said Bryant, who left after the game for Eagle, Colo., where he is expected for three days of hearings in his felony sexual assault case beginning Monday. Bryant will miss Monday's practice, plans to fly back to L.A. for Game 4 on Tuesday and then return to Eagle on Wednesday for the scheduled formal arraignment, where he is expected to plead not guilty.

O'Neal led the Lakers with 28 points, a game-high 15 rebounds and eight blocked shots on Sunday. Malone added 13 points and six rebounds. Payton, meantime, recouped a measure of respect by scoring 15 points. More importantly, Payton finally held his own against San Antonio counterpart Tony Parker, who had torched the Lakers for 50 points in the two previous games, but managed just eight Sunday, with most of those being hard to come by.

Los Angeles finally delivered on previously empty promises to rough up the lightning-quick Parker if he ventured into the lane. Whenever he drove to the basket he was met with mitts and muscle. On one occasion in the third quarter, O'Neal sent Parker to the ground when Parker tried a spinning layup four feet from the basket. Though a foul was called, the banged-up guard missed both foul shots.

"We made a conscious effort to focus on him," Payton said. "Anytime he moved to the basket we collided on him and it made a big difference."

Said Parker: "They played physical but the team that's playing more aggressive basketball wins and L.A. did both today, physical and aggressive."