Old Nemesis From North Is Up Next

It could be argued that the Laker repeat carried three had-to-happen moments: The day Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant came together, the day Derek Fisher healed, and the day the Seattle SuperSonics were eliminated from the playoffs.

While last season’s Lakers made a habit of losing to teams well beneath them (see: Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors, Clippers, Denver Nuggets, etc.), they outdid their distracted selves against the SuperSonics, losing four games by an average of 16 points.

“We knew we had their number last year,” said Laker forward Jelani McCoy, who played last season for the SuperSonics. “We felt confident every time we played them. We kind of expected to beat them. I don’t know why. We just got comfortable in our basketball playing them.”

Then?

“Then we missed the playoffs,” he said, shrugging.

Throw-themselves-to-the-ground relieved, the Lakers went out, became the best postseason team in NBA history, and won another championship.

Five months later, up come the SuperSonics again, Friday at Seattle.

The Lakers are 13-1, have a cool, business-like sense about them, and the SuperSonics are just so-so again.

So, you know, what could possibly happen?

“We just wanted to run,” McCoy said, “to get the rebound and run it down their throats. Every game I think we did that.”

Well, there’s that.

The Lakers had issues last season, of course, particularly in the first several months, when every slippery point guard with a running jump shot devastated their defense.

Seattle’s Gary Payton averaged 27.5 points and 8.3 assists against the Lakers. Fisher helped that malady eventually, but not until after Payton had his way with them.

O’Neal played in all four of the games and averaged 26.8 points and 10 rebounds. Bryant played in three, was guarded by self-anointed “Kobe Stopper” Ruben Patterson in all of them, and scored 19 points a game.

The Lakers were outshot in three of the games, outrebounded in two, and were outscored by 27 points in the fourth quarter.

But this is a different Laker team, both in depth and perspective.

So, what could happen?

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It’s his feet, or the defenses, or his free throws, or all of that, but O’Neal has scored below his average in each of his last five games.

Since Nov. 18, when he scored 28 points against the Sacramento Kings and was averaging 30.0 points and 21.1 attempts, O’Neal has averaged 18.6 points and 14.2 attempts, all against teams without competitive centers.

Bryant led the Lakers in scoring in the last six games, and seven of the last eight.

Bryant leads the league in scoring at 27.4 points a game.

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The NBA record for most victories with one defeat is held by the 1969-70 New York Knicks, who were 23-1. The 1993-94 Houston Rockets won 22 of 23, and the 1990-91 Portland Trail Blazers were 19-1.

In the two games since he came off the injured list, Fisher has played 20 and 28 minutes. His playing time has come at the expense of Brian Shaw, who did not play Sunday against Denver and played three garbage-time minutes Tuesday against Milwaukee. As expected, Lindsey Hunter’s minutes also are down, and Mitch Richmond played only six minutes Tuesday.

The Lakers did not practice Wednesday. They will reconvene today, then fly to Seattle.