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Tickets at Ticket Master
As they have failed to do for most of the last two months, the 76ers were unable to sustain the momentum of a win into their next game.
Then again, the Los Angeles Lakers wouldn't let them.
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The Lakers, with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant combining for 57 points, avenged a 23-point loss to the Sixers on Feb. 5 by pounding the visitors from Philadelphia, 116-88, last night before a sellout crowd of 18,997 at Staples Center.
The Sixers, who haven't won back-to-back games since Jan. 7 and 9, got 40 points
from Allen Iverson in Thursday night's 112-101 win at Seattle. But Iverson,
who played all but 29.3 seconds of that game, looked a little weary last night.
He missed his first eight shots from the field, hit his next three, and missed
his last seven. It all added up to a miserable 3 of 18 from the field and 13
points - none in the second half - as the Sixers fell to 1-10 in games in which
he scores fewer than 20.
Kenny Thomas led the Sixers with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and Glenn Robinson
added 19.
There were plenty of differences in the two teams from their last meeting. Bryant
didn't play in that contest. Gary Payton started but was ejected before the
first quarter had expired. O'Neal, weary from a double-overtime game the night
before in Cleveland, scored only 17 points.
The result was the Lakers' worst loss of the season, 96-73, against a Sixers
team coached by Randy Ayers, who was gone five days later.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson insisted before last night's game that his players
"don't have much of a memory for tough stuff," but he did show them
the tape of the first game at yesterday's shootaround.
It must have worked. O'Neal, who did not play in the fourth quarter, went 12
of 18 from the field, including several thunderous dunks, and scored 29 points
to go with 13 rebounds. Bryant contributed 28 points despite some foul trouble.
The Sixers got as close as five, 63-58, early in the third quarter. But the
Lakers shot 58 percent in the period and got seven points apiece from O'Neal
and Rick Fox to take an 87-70 lead into the final 12 minutes.
The Sixers' Willie Green scored the first two baskets of the quarter, but the
Lakers tallied the next 10 points to get the lead over 20, and the Sixers headed
home having gone 1-2 on their post-all-star-break trip to the West.
Sixers interim head coach Chris Ford knew the rematch with the Lakers would
be as difficult as the first meeting was easy.
"Kobe and Gary weren't out there, so you could concentrate a little more
on Shaq," Ford said before night's game. "Unfortunately, those guys
are going to be in the lineup. We also have to pay attention to them, so it's
going to be a little more difficult to get the help down low that we were able
to get in the first game."
Ford knew what he was talking about.
Bryant came out aggressively and had 16 points before the midway mark of the
second quarter. His 16th point was a free throw, and O'Neal followed with a
dunk to give the Lakers their largest lead of the half, 44-27, with 7:16 to
play.
Once Bryant went to the bench with his third personal foul at the 3:24 mark
of the quarter, the Lakers force-fed O'Neal. The big fellow responded with a
free throw and three dunks, each one more ferocious than the previous one.
O'Neal finished the half with 22 points to go with Bryant's 18. The two combined
for 26 (16 for O'Neal) of the Lakers' 32 points in the second quarter alone,
yet the Sixers managed to hang on and trailed by only eight, 59-51, at the half.
The Sixers stayed in it despite the fact that Iverson missed his first eight
shots from the field, all in the first quarter. He didn't get his first field
goal until 5:51 remained in the second quarter, on a reverse layup.
Iverson then hit a pair of midrange jumpers on the Sixers' next two trips downcourt.
He finished the half 3 of 11 from the field and had 13 points by the intermission
to go with six assists.
Iverson's last assist of the first half, a feed to Robinson on the left wing,
resulted in a three-point basket that narrowed the gap to eight by halftime.
Robinson ended the half with 12 points, and Thomas added 10 points and nine
rebounds.
Robinson scored the Sixers' first seven points of the third quarter, and his
two free throws narrowed the gap to 63-58 with 8:38 to play. The Sixers were
provided further encouragement when Bryant went to the bench with his fourth
foul at the 10:07 mark.
But O'Neal was just too strong. He converted a hook, a free throw, and yet another
dunk to get the Lakers' lead back into double digits. Then his supporting cast
took over, with Kareem Rush and Payton extending the margin to as high as 17.
Iverson didn't score in the third quarter, missing all five of his shots from
the field.
The Sixers' three-headed center of Samuel Dalembert, Amal McCaskill and Zendon
Hamilton strained to try to guard the 7-foot-1, 340-pound O'Neal, but they allowed
him to set up too close to the basket on many occasions.
O'Neal only made one of his first four shots from the field but notched 8 of
his next 10.