Kobe Is Overtowering

SAN ANTONIO —  On the night the Lakers retook control of the NBA postseason, Shaquille O’Neal extended his hand, fingers closed, to his teammate, Kobe Bryant. Bryant touched O’Neal’s fist with his own.

“You’re my idol,” O’Neal said to him. “Hey, you’re my idol.”

Touched, Bryant grinned and turned back to the cameras. He had scored 45 points and, with a combative defense from himself and his teammates, helped snatch home-court advantage from the San Antonio Spurs.

The Lakers defeated the Spurs, 104-90, Saturday night at the Alamodome in the first game of the best-of-seven Western Conference finals. The victory was their 16th in a row, the last eight in the playoffs, and it settled the only nagging issue left from their tumultuous regular season--the Spurs were assured four home games in these conference finals, one more than the Lakers. Game 2 is here Monday night.

“We got home court,” Laker forward Rick Fox said. “Now all we have to do is win out at home.”

And not only in this series. The West winner will have the home-court edge in the finals.

O’Neal, surrounded often by towering Spurs Tim Duncan (28 points, 14 rebounds) and David Robinson (14 points, two in the second half), scored 28 points, the last two on a dunk that brought his father, Philip Harrison, to his feet in the third row. The game turned, however, on the impetuous Bryant, who slashed into the lane and made his signature turnarounds and hounded the Spur big men from the top. He made 19 of 35 shots, scored more points than any playoff opponent in Spur history, and earned, finally, O’Neal’s respect.

For the record, O’Neal said in the aftermath, no one is better.

“He’s playing phenomenal,” he said of Bryant. “I don’t know what to say. I think he’s the best player in the league. By far. When he’s playing like that, scoring, getting everybody involved, playing good defense, there’s nothing you can say. That’s where I’ve been trying to get him all year. And I now can say that he’s the best player.”

O’Neal sat at the front of a crowded interview room. It went quiet, so he continued.

“He’s doing the right thing,” he said. “Somebody once said, ‘The mark of a great player is how you make other players around you play.’ I now can truly say that Kobe Bryant is the best player in this league.”

The game died from the top of the key, Spur guard Antonio Daniels on his heels, burned so often in moments that began just like this, Bryant on the dribble and mulling Daniels’ fear.

The Spurs lost their home-court advantage at the moment Daniels rocked backward and Bryant went straight up, 25 feet from the front of the rim. His shot was true and straight through the heart of a defense that tried but could not stop him.

Bryant’s three-pointer, with 3:20 remaining, put the Lakers ahead, 96-81. It was Bryant’s first three-point attempt, as though he spent 43 minutes setting up the Spurs for the shot that beat them. The Lakers made seven of 14 three-pointers, three by Derek Fisher, two by Robert Horry.

“We didn’t really know what to expect headed into this one,” Bryant said. “We weren’t sure just how the Spurs were going to play us. Personally, I just tried to feed off my teammates. That’s one way that I am improving, learning how to use my teammates to create opportunities, just playing solid and letting the game and the opportunities come to me.”

That’s now seven weeks of unbeaten basketball few figured the Lakers had in them, and one mended relationship that few thought would come so fast.

It was clear, very quickly, the Spurs had no one player who could guard Bryant, and no two players who would. Coming off games of 36 and 48 points in Sacramento, Bryant was too tall for Daniels and too elusive for Sean Elliott. He has averaged 32.5 points in eight playoff games.

Midway through the first quarter, when Bryant scored 12 points, the crowd pulled in its breath on his every first step, expecting the worst. Often, Bryant brought the worst too.

Early in the third quarter, which the Lakers opened with seven consecutive points, Bryant drove to the rim and dunked over, in order of defensive merit, Robinson, Duncan and Daniels. Two possessions later, he beat Daniels and dunked, left-handed, on Duncan. Two minutes later he stripped the ball from Terry Porter at midcourt and finished with another spectacular dunk.

From midway into the second quarter to Fisher’s three-pointer three possessions into the third, the Lakers outscored the Spurs, 27-12. In that span, Robinson scored four points and Duncan two. The Lakers led, 58-42, and maintained that double-digit advantage into the fourth quarter, which began with the Lakers ahead, 80-66.

A lot of it was Bryant, whose confidence drew back his shoulders and put tiny little smiles on the corners of his mouth.

“Oh, you mean Kobe Jordan?” Laker forward Horace Grant said.

Uh-oh.

“I’m on the bench,” said Grant, who didn’t score but combined with Horry to fend off Duncan and Robinson. “I’m 35 years old. I’m a big fan. He’s moving the ball, making the shots, not being intimidated by 7-footers. And he’s only 22. That’s frightening.”

Laker Coach Phil Jackson stood for most of the game, which is rare. The benches are set seven feet from the sidelines, and Jackson needed to keep O’Neal out of foul trouble. So he rode the referees, at one point following Ron Garretson to mid-court. When he turned and found himself eight inches from an NBC camera, Jackson shoved it away.

Concentrating on O’Neal and getting beat by Bryant, the Spurs gave up 100 points for the second time in the postseason and the first time at home.

“Kobe was magnificent,” Jackson said.

For expanded coverage of the Laker-Spur series, including photo galleries and postgame interviews, please visit the Times’ Web site: http://netblogpro.com/nbaplayoffs

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Streak

The Lakers’ 16-game winning streak (the last eight games are playoffs):

*--*

April 3 at Utah 96-88 April 5 at Chicago 100-88 April 6 at Boston 100-96 April 8 at Minnesota 104-99 April 10 Phoenix 106-80 April 12 Minnesota 119-102 April 15 Portland 105-100 April 17 Denver 108-91 April 22 Portland 106-93 April 26 Portland 106-88 April 29 at Portland 99-86 May 6 Sacramento 108-105 May 8 Sacramento 96-90 May 11 at Sacramento 103-81 May 13 at Sacramento 119-113 May 19 at San Antonio 104-90

*--*

LONGEST 2000-01 STREAKS

16--LAKERS (current)

11--Minnesota

10--Philadelphia, Portland

GAME 2 MONDAY

LAKERS at SAN ANTONIO

5:30 p.m., Channel 9

INSIDE

J.A. Adande: The Lakers stole the Spurs’ recipe for success. D13

Mark Heisler: Spurs’ performance takes the edge off. D13

Sound and Vision: How to read NBC, Mike Penner wonders. D14

Xs and O’s: Bryant reaches new level, Paul Westphal writes. D12

Notebook: Other Lakers ready to make contributions. D13