Shaq, Lakers Block Rockets -- Last-Second Swipe Preserves First- Game Win For Los Angeles

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Shaquille O'Neal has a long reach, and with it he plucked back a Los Angeles Laker victory from the rim of defeat.

Quite emphatically. Extremely emphatically.

Game 1 was moving out of reach quickly: A one-point Laker lead, a dwindling clock, a hurrying Houston Rocket guard, an open lane, a 335-pound center on the chase.

With a couple of quick slide steps, a lunge and a long, violent swing of his very long right arm, O'Neal blocked Cuttino Mobley's layup try as time expired, culminating a game full of mood swings and superstar drama.

The O'Neal swat - the biggest play of this Laker season - preserved the Lakers' 101-100 victory yesterday in front of 17,505 at the Great Western Forum and stretched the Laker victory march into the first round of the postseason.

At the tail end of a season in which Coach Kurt Rambis has preached about covering each others' backs, how many Laker backs did O'Neal cover with that block?

"Well, he covered mine - I know that," Rambis said after the victory to open this best-of-five first-round Western Conference series. "He covered the entire team's."

Sure, the Lakers had all the glitzy pieces working - the 20-foot O'Neal lob passes to Kobe Bryant, the Glen Rice scoring machine, even Derek Fisher bombing from the outside for a career-high 20 points.

But, as the Rockets scrambled back from a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit on Charles Barkley's massive shoulders and the contest evolved into a possession-by-possession slugfest, the Lakers pulled it out with some very blue-collar activity.

O'Neal, not so famous for his defensive footwork or playoff pick-and-roll defense, said he knew the Rockets would run a pick-and-roll and see if they could spring somebody loose if O'Neal either over-committed or let the guard fly by.

Instead, O'Neal partially let Mobley scoot past but left Hakeem Olajuwon and followed the guard, then swiped the ball away from behind - and celebrated the play by high-fiving several fans on the baseline as time expired.

"The rumor is I'm not a good pick-and-roll defender," said O'Neal, who finished with 27 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots.

"It's not that I'm not a good pick-and-roll defender. It's (that) being a big man and being a shot-blocker, I'm just used to helping out the guards . . .

"I mean, I can play defense."

Said Fisher, who was screened away from Mobley by Olajuwon on the play: "Shaq is our guy. He's the captain of the ship. And he made the play . . .

"He's always getting ribbed about how he doesn't move his feet, and how he doesn't play pick-and-roll defense. And lo and behold, they run a pick and roll, Shaq moves his feet, and blocks the shot.

"So he was fired up."

O'Neal's block was not the only blue-collar play to pull out this game for the Lakers in the bristling fourth quarter.

Overall, Houston committed 14 turnovers, several in the final minutes.

Trailing 100-98 with less than a minute left, after getting scorched for 16 second-half points by Barkley (he finished with 25 points) and some clutch shooting by Sam Mack (three three-pointers), the Laker defense rose up at the end.

The Lakers forced an Olajuwon miss, swiped the ball away from Scottie Pippen when Bryant stood his ground and Fisher dived for it, then watched the game come down to Mobley and O'Neal.

"To get a stop for the win, it does make you feel good," Fisher said. "But on the other hand, it was like, `Naw, we shouldn't have been in that situation.' "