LAKERS HAVE RENEWED ATTITUDE COMEBACK TO DETHRONE SPURS RESULT OF TEAM'S TRANSFORMATION.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

It's the spectacular images that get etched into history, printed on T-shirts and spliced into highlight tapes, and so for generations to come, this Lakers postseason probably will be remembered for Derek Fisher's point-four miracle shot in Game 5 and not what came after it.

The images that followed deserve a strong second billing, though.

Kobe Bryant hugging Karl Malone and Malone hugging Shaquille O'Neal, O'Neal hugging Bryant and eventually, Bryant embracing Fisher in a dim gray hallway at San Antonio's SBC Center.

Days earlier, the Lakers had been down two games to none, the season in such peril that coach Phil Jackson felt compelled to lay out, blow by blow, everything that was at stake: careers, reputations, relationships. Simply, everything.

Eight days later, Jackson's star-studded, star-crossed team had completed an improbable comeback that at once dethroned the Spurs and renewed a spirit the Lakers perhaps thought had been lost.

Team Turmoil had become Team of Destiny.

Indeed, Fisher's shot did not simply alter the course of the series, it spurred a teamwide transformation. The Lakers who now await a Western Conference finals showdown against Sacramento or Minnesota are not the same outfit that stumbled into the playoffs 30 days ago.

Bryant hit mid-April as a troubled and troublesome star who was disrupting the team's flow on the court when he wasn't attending to legal matters off it. He hit mid-May reformed again as the polished, determined leader who could dominate a game without taking every shot and be touted by O'Neal as ``the best player ever.''

O'Neal hit mid-April looking old and slow - no longer the Most Dominant Ever, but more like the Most Dominant, Earlier. He hit mid-May looking again like the game's most fearsome force, and the Lakers' defense suddenly grew sturdy.

Along the way, Jackson regained his mystic aura.

Gary Payton went from discontented star to solid citizen.

And Fisher went from solid citizen to playoff hero.

So the Lakers have earned at least another couple of weeks together before the forces of time, money and ego scatter the roster to the wind.

``It's just a neat feeling to still be playing right now,'' Malone said late Saturday night after the Lakers closed out the Spurs at Staples Center. ``The last four or five years, I've been having early vacations. Right now, I'm not even planning anything. It's just a joy to be playing.''

The details of the Lakers' transformation are stunning to consider and bode well for their championship hopes.

They finished the regular season ranked 16th in points allowed (94.3) and defensive field-goal percentage (.440). Through two rounds of playoff, those figures are 84.2 and .411.

After two losses in San Antonio, they found a strategy and a will to defend the pick-and-roll, long considered the bane of the Lakers' existence.

``We knew that we could play that in spurts,'' Jackson said. ``We didn't know if we could play it for long periods of time. I thought we got better and better as we got conditioned to playing the kind of defense that we had to play.''

After O'Neal averaged 16.2 points - the lowest-scoring series of his career - in the first round against Houston, critics wondered if his dominating days were over. Against the Spurs, perhaps the best defensive team in the league and with the size to challenge him, O'Neal averaged 22.5 points (on .635 shooting), 14.5 rebounds and 4.33 blocks per game. His movement on defense was a key reason the Lakers were able to shut down the Spurs' penetration.

In the final weeks of the regular season, Bryant irked teammates with overaggressive offense, and it spilled right into the first round against Houston, when he averaged 24.4 points on .386 shooting. But he was more selective, and much more effective, against the Spurs, averaging 26.3 points on .462 shooting.

No one's reputation had been harder hit than Payton's. He sulked through fourth-quarter benchings against Houston, was caught ranting loudly to his agent after the Game 2 loss at San Antonio and suffered the brunt of the criticism when Parker dropped 50 points in the first two games.

Then the Lakers adjusted their defense by closing the lane, and Payton stopped looking too old. Parker averaged 12.5 points over the final four games.

Payton shed a burden, but not his irascible stance, when the word ``vindication'' arose.

``I don't care about that, man. It's over,'' he said. ``We're moving on. That's all I care about. I don't care about (who) people blame.''

It was all a nice payoff, then, for a team that survived what Jackson called one of the most draining early-round series he's ever coached. When it was over, Jackson got his genius mantle back. Despite the 2-0 deficit, he's now gone 47 playoff series without having his team eliminated in fewer than six games.

Only eight teams have won a series after trailing 2-0, and Jackson presided over two of them. His 1993 Chicago Bulls came back to beat the New York Knicks, and like his current team, did it by winning four in a row.

The Jackson-era Lakers have now closed out 11 consecutive series on the first try.

And for a final omen - to be appended to the lasting image of Fisher's outstretched left arm and kicking right leg - the Lakers can look to history again. Of the seven previous teams to come back from 2-0, five went on to win the championship, including Jackson's '93 Bulls.

The Kings or Timberwolves are on the horizon and beyond that lies an Eastern Conference opponent. But the Lakers already have dethroned the champions and, for the first time since November, appear worthy of the throne themselves.

``We've got a lot of heart,'' said Devean George, ``and we've got a lot guys on the team that are fighters and we're not willing to give up when people count us out. And a lot of people kind of counted us out, thinking we were going to get swept. So we stayed close, and I think a lot of that stuff brought us closer together in the locker room, a lot of people doubting us and putting us down.''

Howard Beck, [phone]

howard.beck(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Kobe Bryant, right, provided the offensive firepower, and Gary Payton redeemed himself on defense as the Lakers rallied to oust the Spurs.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

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