Finally, at age 25, Shaquille O'Neal can say he made a buzzer-beating shot to win a game. It was something he had never done before, at any level.
O'Neal's jumper from the left baseline as time expired Sunday lifted the Los Angeles Lakers to a 100-98 victory over the Utah Jazz and into a first-place tie with Seattle in the Pacific Division.O'Neal scored 12 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter and grabbed 13 rebounds in his second game since being sidelined for two months due to an injured left knee.
"(Lakers coach Del Harris) called a play in the huddle and he said, `Big boy, bring us home. If you get fouled, hit two. Just bring us home,' " O'Neal said. "They were supposed to get me the ball with four seconds, but Nick (Van Exel) held it a couple of seconds longer.
"I just got it, turned around and shot it, and luckily, it went in."
The win was the ninth in 11 games for the Lakers.
"This was a big win for us," Harris said. "You have to play awfully well to beat Utah because they just will not beat themselves. We wanted to be sure that we got the last look at it. We didn't want to take any chances."
However, the Lakers did take a chance - O'Neal barely got his shot away before time ran out. Van Exel said O'Neal was supposed to set a screen on the Utah player defending Eddie Jones, but didn't. That's what took so long for Van Exel to pass him the ball.
"I almost did (wait too long)," Van Exel said. "He had Eddie's defender behind him. The big fella didn't want to set the screen, he wanted to get the ball. He was real pumped before the game, he wanted this one bad.
"The big fella said after the timeout, `No matter what happens, get me the ball and the game's over.' I got him the ball and the game was over."
Van Exel also said the win was big for the Lakers because the Jazz had disrespected them.
"Oh definitely, definitely," Van Exel said. "I'm sure they still feel that they own the Lakers. For us, this is a big confidence-builder, even if we did only beat them in the one game."
The loss snapped a franchise record-tying 15-game winning streak by the Jazz (60-18), who need just one win in their final four games to set a team record for victories in a season.
Utah has already clinched homecourt advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs.
"He made the big shot," Utah coach Jerry Sloan said of O'Neal. "We didn't win, that's what you play for."
About Van Exel's lack-of-respect remark, Sloan shook his head and said, "We respect them to the utmost. If they had had everybody healthy all year, they might have won 70 games. That's the kind of respect we have for them."
On Friday night, in his first game since he was injured Feb. 12, O'Neal had 24 points and 11 rebounds to help the Lakers beat Phoenix 114-98 and snap the Suns' 11-game winning streak.
The Lakers took a 98-96 lead on a jumper from the left baseline by O'Neal with 27.4 seconds remaining, but the Jazz tied it on a jumper by Karl Malone with 16.5 seconds left.
The Lakers then called a timeout, and Van Exel dribbled the ball on the left side before feeding O'Neal, who quickly turned and hit the winning shot from about 15 feet away despite being double-teamed by Greg Ostertag and Bryon Russell.
"He hit the big shot, you have to give him credit for that, that's what he gets paid the big bucks for," Malone said of O'Neal. "They won the game, give them credit."
Malone had scored six straight points to give the Jazz a 93-87 lead with 3:44 remaining, but the Lakers then outscored the Jazz 13-5 to earn the victory.
Jones added 20 points and reserve Kobe Bryant scored 12 for the Lakers. John Stockton led the Jazz with 30 points - one short of his season-high - and nine assists. Malone scored 20 of his 26 in the second half.