Horry revives Lakers
By Greg Beacham
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Whenever the Los Angeles Lakers are down to their last gasp, Robert Horry knows his place.
Associated Press
The Lakers trailed by two in the closing seconds as Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal missed shots, but Horry never moved from the top of the 3-point arc. Horry ended up with the ball, as he always seems to do — and as he's done so many times before, the Lakers' cardiac specialist did something remarkable.
With less than one second remaining, the Los Angeles Lakers' Robert Horry (5) shoots a three-point shot over the reach of the Sacramento Kings' Chris Webber (4) to win Game 4.
Horry hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer yesterday as the Lakers rallied from a 24-point deficit for a thrilling 100-99 victory over the Sacramento Kings, tying the Western Conference finals at two games apiece.
It was pure Hollywood — and it kept Hollywood's favorite team in good shape for another title.
"I wanted the 3 all the way," Horry said. "I stayed right where I could get it. When it came rolling out, it was like, 'Oh, look what I got.' "
Game 5 is tomorrow night in Sacramento, with Game 6 back at Staples Center on Friday night.
Horry scored 11 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter as the Lakers willed themselves to an amazing victory in a game they badly needed to keep their championship hopes alive. They made it as dramatic as possible, falling behind by a huge margin as the Kings played an outstanding first half.
But nobody in the Lakers' locker room was overly surprised at the fortuitous blind tip by Vlade Divac that put the ball in Horry's hands for the shot that capped their comeback.
After two championships and more dramatic finishes than they can count, the Lakers have come to expect outrageous turns of fortune as a matter of course.
"I didn't draw it up like that, so don't ask me," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said with a grin. "But we got the shot we wanted."
The Kings led by eight points with less than four minutes left, but Horry pulled the Lakers within three with another 3-pointer with 1:39 left. O'Neal, who finished with 27 points and 18 rebounds, hit two free throws to make it 98-97 with 26.9 seconds left.
Divac made one of two free throws with 11.8 seconds to play. In the final seconds, Bryant missed a layup and O'Neal missed a tip-in, but Divac swatted the rebound out to Horry, who buried the wide-open shot from straightaway before being mobbed by his teammates.
Horry hit the final shot, but an outstanding second half of defense kept the Kings from grabbing control of the series. Now, the Kings are wondering what forces beyond the game they must conquer to knock off the Lakers.
"Just a lucky shot, that's all," said Divac, who had 23 points. "You don't have concentration. He just threw it up. If it goes in, it goes in."
But as the confidence on his face showed, it wasn't Horry's first time as a long-distance postseason hero. In Game 3 of last season's NBA Finals, his 3-pointer with 47 seconds left finished off Philadelphia.
Earlier in the spring at Portland, he hit a decisive 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left. In the conference semifinals against San Antonio, Horry's 3-pointer with 56 seconds left finished off the Spurs.
"Rob has been big throughout his career," O'Neal said. "I knew it was going to go down as soon as it left his hand."
The Kings blew out Los Angeles in Game 3 Friday night. Faced with the prospect of a 3-1 series deficit — which the Lakers haven't rallied to overcome in 31 years — Los Angeles got another dose of the magic that seems to follow this franchise.
"This one should knock the cobwebs out," Horry said. "Hopefully we can go out (to Sacramento) and get some wins and get back to the old Laker basketball."
Sacramento roared to its second spectacular start at Staples Center, scoring 40 points in the first quarter and taking a 14-point lead to halftime. But the Kings fumbled through the second half with poor shooting and turnovers, and Divac missed a free throw with 11.8 seconds left.
It might be a crushing loss for the Kings, who had several opportunities to finish off the Lakers in the fourth quarter but couldn't complete their sixth straight road victory in the postseason.
"We were one lucky play away from winning," said Chris Webber, who had 20 points. "We just have to come back and not worry about this, because we feel we have the better team."
The Kings, still playing without injured All-Star Peja Stojakovic, had every reason for a letdown yesterday. They already had reclaimed homecourt advantage in the series, and everyone expected the Lakers to be roused from the funk that enveloped them in Game 3.
Instead, Sacramento opened Game 4 with its most spectacular quarter in some time. The Kings hit 12 of their first 15 shots, made a 14-5 run and led 40-20 on Mike Bibby's jumper with 2.2 seconds left in the quarter.
It was the Kings' most prolific quarter of the postseason, and it left the Lakers dumbfounded.
Sacramento led 50-26 at one point, but the Kings tightened up as Bryant shut down Bibby, who scored 18 points in the first half but just three in the second.
The Lakers still struggled to hit open shots, shooting less than 40 percent from the field. They were an abysmal 6-of-26 on 3-pointers — but the last one was the only one that mattered.
Bibby hit 8-of-11 shots in the first half, but Samaki Walker's desperation 3-pointer — which he released after the buzzer — cut the lead to 65-51 at halftime.
