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Bench Warmer
He makes the big shots and gets the crunch-time call when he collides in midair with Derek Fisher.
Looks like Roger Mason is a bigger free-agent steal than the San Antonio Spurs had ever allowed themselves to believe.
So we have to talk about that first.
Remember that Mason dagger from the corner that beat Phoenix at the buzzer on Christmas Day? That was a yawn compared to the wild scenes of Wednesday night, when Mason was not only asked to replace Bruce Bowen as the Spurs' primary Kobe Bryant defender but also intersected in the final seconds with the most notorious Spurs Killer not named Kobe Bryant ... and out-Fishered him.
"Typical Spurs-Lakers stuff," Bryant said with a smile, trying to shrug off the crazy back-and-forth of a final 28.9 seconds that somehow left San Antonio clinging to a 112-111 victory.
"That's how it is," Kobe continued. "I hope they get it out of their system and there are no bullets left."
It was the first encounter for these teams since last spring's Western Conference Finals ... and it was honestly more than anyone could have hoped for. Except that the amazing ending to this game of ridiculously good execution and shot-making really wasn't so typical.
Not in this building. Not when Fisher's involved. Surely you're aware, if you've followed this Spurs-Lakers stuff with any regularity, that it's rare when the final play doesn't go Fisher's way at the AT&T Center.
Exhibit A for the forgetful: Fisher's crushing shot to beat the Spurs in Game 5 of a second-round series in 2004 after catching, spinning and shooting with four-tenths of a second on the clock. Exhibit B: Fisher landing on Brent Barry -- but avoiding a whistle -- on the last shot in Game 4 of the 2008 conference finals.
Asked to do a little reflecting after the crowd around his locker dispersed late Wednesday, Fisher conceded: "I guess I've been involved in some interesting moments here."
This, however, is January.
So ...
Sweet as it was for the Spurs to see Mason (18 points) shake free from Fisher near the baseline, gather Matt Bonner's hurried fastball pass and do what Barry couldn't -- initiate contact but also draw the foul as he banged home a long jumper that put him on the line for the decisive point -- there is only so much vengeance San Antonio can claim from a regular-season game. Even an extraordinary regular-season game during which Bryant, before Mason's magic, responded to Tim Duncan's go-ahead heave in the lane by splashing in his own 3-pointer from the left wing with 12.9 seconds remaining.
Which brings us to Part 2 of this tale.
That would be the part about the Lakers looking so good with three regulars out and dressing only eight guys Phil Jackson trusted to play on the second night of a back-to-back. (Fine: It's nine if you count Sun Yue's 82-second stint.)
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said something afterward about how "what goes around comes around," in an apparent reference to San Antonio's luck with Fisher, but Pop's words were a lot louder last week when he said of the purple and gold: "We're just not in the same league with the Lakers right now."
You have to wonder how he sees it after this.
Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic and Luke Walton are sidelined by injury. Odom isn't all the way back after rushing back this week from a bruised knee after sitting out just three games. Fisher managed to suffer a groin injury during Wednesday's busy proceedings but was cleared to return for the finish after some quickie treatment from Lakers flexibility specialist Alex McKechnie.
Yet none of that stopped the Lakers, after winning the previous night in Houston, from finding the gas to erase San Antonio's 11-point lead with 6:55 to play.
"That was a big game for us," Jackson said. "This was a game that I was proud of the guys for coming back and playing like that. [San Antonio has] been here for three days waiting for us."
So Jackson could live with the Lakers' final possession, when San Antonio forced the ball out of Bryant's hands, only for Trevor Ariza to be hit with a traveling call as he drove to the bucket. He saw no need to chastise Bryant for what turned out to be a premature rendition of Sam Cassell's infamous celebration dance, after Kobe's 3 put L.A. up 111-109. Like Popovich with Mason, Jackson clearly enjoyed having options -- such as using the long-limbed Ariza to guard Parker or putting Andrew Bynum (18 points) on Duncan -- that he didn't have in May.
The comeback, even in defeat, might have made a louder statement about L.A.'s well-chronicled depth than anything we've seen all season. The rally actually gathered steam when Kobe found himself running side pick-and-rolls in crunch time with the little-used Josh Powell on back-to-back possessions ... both of them ending with Powell leaving his hand in the air to punctuate a drained midrange jumper after rolling into daylight and getting the ball from the blitzed Bryant.
Let's be clear here: San Antonio should get a tangible boost from pulling this one out. Manu Ginobili scored a season-high 27 points -- which included a buzzer-beating 3 to cap an equally chaotic final minute of the third quarter -- with the sort of power in his legs that we never saw when the teams met in the playoffs. Duncan had two big buckets in the final 1:15 and quietly flirted with a triple-double (20 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists). The Spurs also indoctrinated rookie George Hill to the rivalry with 14 quality minutes and wound up enhancing Mason's growing reputation to the point that no one even remembered to ask Popovich why Bowen received only six minutes off the bench.
Yet it's no secret in NBA front-office circles that the Spurs, in spite of their limited trade assets, hope to acquire at least one more quality player before the Feb. 19 trade deadline. It would be tough, on this evidence, to dispute the theory that they'll need another big man or another scoring threat to move into what Pop is now referring to as the Lakers' league.
That's especially true if the Lakers -- given all of their health issues -- can bank on the following claim from Bryant as L.A. prepares for two more immediate challenges: Orlando visits Staples Center on Friday, followed by Cleveland on Monday.
Before racking up 29 points, 10 assists and seven boards in defeat, when asked in a pregame chat if he can withstand L.A.'s wave of injuries, Kobe said: "I feel as good as I've felt in a long time."
