Oh, the poor Indiana Pacers. They should have known what was coming. This time, it was Kobe Bryant beating them. In these parts, it's always going to be somebody, or something.
It would have been understandable had the Pacers felt a bit like Christians entering the Roman Colosseum on Friday night.
It wasn't just that the lions poised to eat them, a.k.a. the Lakers, entered with a 28-6 record and had arguably the best player in the game in Bryant.
That's a healthy, smooth-as-silk Bryant. In his last five games, Bryant had hit for 31, 40, 26, 39 and 21 points. This time he got 36, including the spike in Indiana's heart with three seconds left, bringing a 121-119 victory.
Nor was it that the Pacers were sitting firmly in last place in the NBA's Central Division at 13-22.
It was more than the obvious. This was unfriendly turf for basketball teams from Indiana. No "Hoosiers" endings in these parts for quite some time, at least against the Lakers.
Matter of fact, at Staples Center, never.
In 10 regular-season games now against the Lakers in the palace Phil Anschutz built and opened in the fall of 1999, Indiana is oh-fer. Zero, Zilch. Nada. It's always the same. They come, they see, they get stapled.
Same thing in three playoff games.
Before the game started, they played the obligatory "I Love L.A." Even Randy Newman would have understood if several Pacers players reached for barf bags.
The Pacers had a couple of things going for them. First, they had beaten the Lakers this season, one of the season's six such aberrations to date. Also, the current cast probably takes little time to ponder such history.
They also had going for them a player named Danny Granger, who scored 16 points in the first half and helped the Pacers stay right in the game, trailing 68-66 at the break. In his previous three games, Granger had 35, 36, and 37 points, so the Lakers had to wonder if 38 was inevitable. Turns out it was 28.
In the first half, the Lakers went back to their habit of playing selective defense. They selected when they wanted to, and against the Pacers in those first 24 minutes, they selected to play none.
They compensated by shooting a torrid 64.3% from the field, with Pau Gasol making eight of nine for 17 points and Bryant scoring 14 more. But Indiana wasn't far behind. With an occasional Lakers defender wandering into the area, but not often, the Pacers shot 61.5% and a former Lakers ballboy named Mike Dunleavy helped that hot percentage by sinking four of four.
