Magic Moment Has Arrived, so Start Planning the Parade

SACRAMENTO —  During each of their first two long drives toward the NBA championship, there has been a moment when the Lakers stopped sputtering, stopped swerving, stopped wondering.

There has been a moment when a tired and dusty team looked down and realized its tank was full enough and its tires were strong enough.

It has been at this moment when the Lakers have rolled down the windows, stuck their arms outside, and sped toward the title shouting something that resembled “Whoo-hoo!”

Sort of like Saturday.

That clanging heard at the Arco barn wasn’t cowbells, it was escort sirens.

That dull roar coming from stunned farmers wasn’t booing, it was the start of a motorcade.

The Lakers’ 106-99 victory over the Sacramento Kings in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals wasn’t only a game, it was a letter of confirmation for a trip to the middle of June.

An occasional stall notwithstanding, can the Lakers be headed anywhere else?

The only team that can beat them couldn’t. The only place that can faze them didn’t. The only ones who can stop them now, it seems, are themselves.

Three years, three defining moments, perhaps none so alternately blaring and silent as this one.

At the start of Saturday’s game, the crowd of 17,317 set the alleged world record for the loudest crowd. It was so loud, pens rattled on press tables and Laker coaches tightened ear plugs.

But six minutes into the first quarter, after the Lakers had made nine of their first 10 shots, it was quiet enough to hear a Vlade Divac flop.

In the final minute, the loudest noise was the trudging of fans leaving early to beat the traffic.

What’s the Guinness world record for the loudest collective whine?

“We took what we wanted,” Samaki Walker said. “We didn’t just take what they gave us.”

And in doing so, the Lakers claimed the sort of affirmation that serves in these lengthy playoff situations as fuel.

They weren’t a championship team in the first round against Portland. They were barely a conference finals teams in the second round against San Antonio.

On Saturday, with each impossible shot by Kobe Bryant, with each improbable dive or slap by Rick Fox and Robert Horry, with each same-old-unstoppable layup by Shaquille O’Neal, their self-image changed.

Casualness became capitol punishment.

“In each round we’ve played better, but not good enough to win this kind of game,” said Fox, sweating more under the postgame lights than while running through a matador King defense. “Today, we did. It was only a matter of time before we had one of those games that lights us up down the stretch.”

Remember Game 7 against Portland two years ago?

Remember Game 2 in San Antonio last year?

Saturday’s was a direct descendant, even if it didn’t quite resemble them during the early afternoon.

While walking from the team bus, Phil Jackson tripped and fell just outside the locker room.

A security guard helped break his fall, even if Jackson didn’t see it that way.

“He tripped me,” Jackson said with a smile. “It’s already started.”

Derek Fisher missed a jump shot on the Lakers’ first possession and Divac moved inside for a layup and ... botched it.

Moments later, O’Neal scored on a jump hook. Fisher made a jump shot. Bryant made a jump shot. Fox made a three-point shot. O’Neal made another jump hook. O’Neal dunked. Bryant dunked.

All while the Kings were taking bad shots, with no passes, while playing no defense.

Fisher made a jump shot. Fox made a jump shot. Fisher made a three-point shot.

Halfway into the first quarter, in a game that was supposed to knock them cold, they were dancing around while leading by 10.

It was that quick, that clean, that over.

“There was a freedom to our game,” Jackson said. “They looked like they played a little tense.”

A freedom to pass, with 11 assists in the first quarter alone.

A freedom to bump and run on defense, with Fox muscling Hedo Turkoglu into a misprint-looking game of zero points in 29 minutes.

A freedom to share the wealth, with a different player starring in each quarter, from Horry to Devean George to O’Neal to you-know-who.

“We have been playing all season long just to get here,” Bryant said.

And they remember it well.

*

Bill Plaschke can be reached at [email protected].