KNIGHT HAS DOUBLE-OT RESCUE ROLE : LAKERS KNOCK OFF ROCKETS EVEN AFTER SHAQ FOULS OUT LAKERS 126, HOUSTON 115.Byline: Marc Stein Marc Stein is a sports reporter. He began writing for ESPN.com in 2000 and signed on full-time in 2002 to serve as the site's senior National Basketball Association writer. Daily News Staff Writer Forget what it said on the marquee. Shaq vs. Hak? Not exactly. At the end, two overtimes deep into Tuesday night, the Lakers had Travis Knight Travis Knight (born September 13 1974 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is an American former professional basketball player who was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the 1st round (29th overall) of the 1996 NBA Draft. opposite Hakeem Olajuwon Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon (born Akeem Abdul Olajuwon on January 21, 1963) is a retired Nigerian-American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). . And, somehow, an insurmountable lead. On a strange and endless evening at the Summit, long after Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (pronounced "shak-KEEL") (born March 6, 1972 in Newark, New Jersey), frequently referred to simply as Shaq, is an American professional basketball player, generally regarded as one of the most dominant in the National Basketball Association (NBA). and Eddie Jones had fouled out, the Lakers found enough left on the floor and on the bench to claim a 126-115 double-overtime upset of the previously unbeaten Houston Rockets. Coach Del Harris lost his voice in the first quarter and his best two players to the refs in the fourth, but he turned elsewhere to find Nick Van Exel Nickey (Nick) Maxwell Van Exel (born November 27 1971 in Kenosha, Wisconsin) is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA. Van Exel, a 6'1" left-handed point guard, was most well known for his flashy style of play and his ability to hit critical shots during ready with 29 points and 14 assists, Cedric Ceballos Cedric Z. Ceballos (born August 2 1969 in Maui, Hawaii) is an American former professional basketball player in the NBA. As a small forward, he played most notably for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns, later finishing his NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks, Detroit with 22 points and 10 rebounds and Knight - Knight? - holding Olajuwon to one basket in the final three minutes "Three Minutes" is the 46th episode of Lost. It is the twenty-second episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Stephen Williams, and written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. It first aired on May 17, 2006 on ABC. . ``It was the only option I had,'' explained Harris, drenched drench tr.v. drenched, drench·ing, drench·es 1. To wet through and through; soak. 2. To administer a large oral dose of liquid medicine to (an animal). 3. but relieved after this one. ``I needed someone tall. That left Kurt (assistant coach Kurt Rambis Darrell Kurt Rambis (born February 25, 1958 in Cupertino, California) is an American former professional basketball player and current assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers. ) and Travis.'' Even though Knight wasn't who Harris or the crew from TNT TNT: see trinitrotoluene. TNT in full trinitrotoluene Pale yellow, solid organic compound made by adding nitrate (−NO2) groups to toluene. wanted to see down the stretch, neither party could really complain. Not even the Rockets (6-1) had a right to gripe gripe v. To have sharp pains in the bowels. n. 1. gripes Sharp, spasmodic pains in the bowels. 2. A firm hold; a grasp. , after Charles Barkley (33 points and 16 rebounds) denied the Lakers (5-2) a regulation victory by hitting a game-tying 3-pointer with 5.7 seconds to go. So what if O'Neal, who tallied 20 of his 34 points in the opening quarter, wasn't around for the finish? There was plenty to gaze at, like Van Exel logging 54 minutes without a turnover, or the Lakers finally breaking the 100-point barrier, or Knight coming in to face Olajuwon, who finished with 31 points despite a painful back injury. O'Neal's one-word analysis of Knight's performance: ``Excellent.'' Which is to say effective. Knight looked awfully frightened when he realized he'd have to play, but he immediately baited Olajuwon into a three-second violation and drew a foul at the other end. And after, uh, airballing the first free throw, the nervous Knight swished the second and then tipped in a Van Exel miss for a 124-115 edge with 59.9 seconds left. ``My mind was going a million miles an hour,'' said Knight, whose NBA NBA abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= career had spanned five minutes before the absence of O'Neal and Sean Rooks, who also fouled out, forced Harris' hand. ``Sometimes it's kind of hard to play when it's going that fast.'' Sometimes. It's also sometimes difficult to re-energize for an extra period - or two - after a win in regulation seemed certain, but that's what the Lakers had to do. They were up by as much as 12 in the fourth quarter when Houston rallied behind Barkley and unheralded point guard Emanual Davis (nine of his 19 points in the period), then had to continue without O'Neal (15 rebounds) and Jones (18 points). With seven points from Ceballos and two huge free throws from Elden Campbell with eight seconds left and Houston up 113-111, the Lakers survived the first overtime. In the second, Van Exel made two 3-pointers and had eight points in all to push the Lakers to 2-0 on national television and give his sagging confidence a much-needed boost. ``I hope so,'' Van Exel said when asked if he and the Lakers had made a breakthrough. ``Somebody had to come through when Shaq went out and me and Cedric stepped up. It was a big game against a good team.'' Which makes the Lakers . . . overrated Overrated was a Horde World of Warcraft guild, based on the US Black Dragonflight Realm. On November 2 2006, the majority of the guild members were indefinitely banned from the game for use of (or directly benefiting from) a third-party "wall-hack", used to bypass content ? That's the label Barkley pinned on them, and one loss wasn't going to change Chuck's mind. ``They're not going to come together,'' Barkley said. ``They've got a bad mix of players. They're going to win a lot of games because they've got a lot of talent, but it takes more than talent.'' What would it take for the Lakers to mesh? ``A miracle,'' Barkley said. Or maybe just a November win in Houston. ``Charles is Charles,'' Harris said. ``Everyone gets a kick out of him. He has a tendency to be off-color - and maybe he went totally off the coloring book a time or two. ``You beat this team, on their court, it's going to bring you together.'' INSIDE MATCHUP A look at the matchup between Shaquille O'Neal and Houston's Hakeem Olajuwon. Player Pts. Reb. Blk O'Neal 34 15 2 Olajuwon 31 7 4 CAPTION(S): 2 Photos, 2 Boxes Photo: (1--color) The Lakers' Eddie Jones (6) and Houston's Kevin Willis fight for a rebound in the first quarter. (2) The Lakers' Shaquille O'Neal, who scored 34 points before fouling out, sends a hook over Houston's Hakeem Olajuwon in the first quarter. Associated Press Box: (1) INSIDE MATCHUP (see text) (2) LAKERS BOX |
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