Lakers 104
Knicks 83
When Shaquille O’Neal really started to give a damn about midway through the third quarter, he took the ball on the low left block against his old Finals’ nemesis, Dikembe Mutombo.
Shaq backed Mutombo in with three dribbles under the basket as if his defender were Calista Flockhart and dunked with his right hand, rattling the Garden rim.
That’s about all that rattled in the soldout but sleepy Garden last night as the Lakers, taking advantage of an obscene 47-6 advantage in free-throw attempts, methodically dispatched the Keith Van Horn-less Knicks in the second half in a dreary 104-83 pasting.
Kobe Bryant received a mixture of raucous cheers and boos during player introductions but the Garden fans soon became indifferent, lulled to sleep by the torrent of whistles going against the home team.
The only good news of this night is Bryant (21 points, four assists) didn’t dismiss the Knicks as a potential landing spot if he opts out of his contract at season’s end, though the Lakers would have to take back Allan Houston in a sign-and-trade deal.
Afterward, the Knicks grumbled about the foul discrepancy. This really wasn’t a fair fight – what with Van Horn (ankle sprain) missing and the referees clad in an invisible purple-and-gold uniform. How crazy was it? O’Neal (23 points) shot 16 free throws or 10 more than the whole Knick team.
Houston, held to 10 points, picked up his third with 2:48 left in the first quarter and sat out the rest of the half. Mutombo got a quick two fouls. Kurt Thomas and Mutombo picked up their fourth early in the third quarter. When Thomas left after setting a harmless pick, he cursed at referee Tim Donaghy for several seconds before picking up a technical.
Mutombo was beside himself, too.
“You look at the four fouls I got, it was nothing,” Mutombo said. “I played against Shaq for 12 years. I never got called [for a] foul for just holding off from the back [with my forearm.]”
Bryant’s best moments were three dishes to a cutting-down-the-lane Shaq, including one beautiful over-the-head flip as Kobe had his man posted. The three passes resulted in rim-shaking Shaq dunks.
But this was mostly an ugly one. The Lakers (9-3), weary from their road game in Detroit the night before, went through the motions in the first half, led by just 51-49.
During one second-quarter timeout, after two silly forced runners by Bryant, Lakers coach Phil Jackson reamed into his team, barking, “We’re forcing shots. We’re not running our offense. We can do better than that.”
The Lakers had a two-point lead at halftime after one of the worst calls in NBA history. In the final seconds, Karl Malone charged after an offensive rebound, jumping on rookie Mike Sweetney’s back to get it. The whistle blew and Sweetney was tagged with the foul with 2.6 seconds left.
Then Thomas got his fourth two minutes into the third after setting a solid pick. Bryant ran into Thomas and sure enough, the call went against the Knicks (3-8).
“I deserved my technical foul,” Thomas said.
Point guard Frank Williams provided a second-quarter spark, scoring 12 points for a career-high 14, while keeping a handle on Bryant in what first appeared a mismatch. But the Knicks could stay close only so long, facing the Hall-of-Fame Lakers and facing some officials who looked as if all they wanted was Shaq, Kobe, Malone and Gary Payton’s autographs.
“That really crippled us,” Chaney said “We’re shorthanded to begin with and you get Allan in foul trouble, it really put us in a bind. You’re up the creek.”
