Deliverance in Overtime

HOUSTON — One more push and they are past the Houston Rockets, the Lakers now holding to Karl Malone as they once did Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, Malone’s influence growing in the final days of April.

They defeated the Rockets in overtime at the Toyota Center on Sunday afternoon, when first they blew a 10-point, fourth-quarter lead and then they overcame a four-point overtime deficit, settling finally at 92-88 and a three-games-to-one lead in the series.

Game 5 is Wednesday night at Staples Center.

One more victory against the Rockets will bring a second-round series against San Antonio, a rematch of last year’s second-round Spur win, an outcome that set the Lakers to acquiring the likes of Malone and Gary Payton.

“They’re going to be waiting for us,” Payton said of the Spurs. “We don’t want them to be waiting for us for too long.”

Nearly a year later, Malone scored 30 points against the Rockets, 20 in the first half and four in overtime. The 40-year-old Mailman’s final field goal, with 1:27 remaining, fouled out Rocket center Yao Ming, and his ensuing free throw drew the Lakers to within a point. Bryant then stole the ball from Jim Jackson and made a runner, followed that with a three-point play, Malone added another free throw, and a long weekend ended with Malone in front of his locker, his feet in ice water.

His first postseason with the Lakers has been a study in taking control, a quarter at a time. With the spotlight on the middle matchup of Yao and O’Neal, Malone has averaged 18 points in four games, despite scoring only seven -- on three-for-14 shooting -- in Game 1.

On Sunday he became the first 40-year-old to score as many as 30 points in a playoff game since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 32 in Game 6 of the 1987 NBA Finals, and the first Laker other than the Original Two to lead the team in scoring in a playoff game in three years.

“It was just one of those days, and it just happened like that,” Malone said. “This wasn’t just one guy.”

In a series in which O’Neal has been so-so against Yao, and in a game in which Bryant was slowed by a stomach ailment and missed 14 of 21 shots while scoring 18 points, Malone established his midrange offense early, picked a fight in the second quarter, took 13 rebounds and dared the Rockets to shove back, all his kind of game.

“Karl was terrific,” Coach Phil Jackson said.

He also sparked a brief tussle in the second quarter, sprinting the length of the court on a Rocket fastbreak and finding himself under the basket as Rocket reserve Bostjan Nachbar finished with a layup. Nachbar flipped over Malone’s back, landed hard, and a few temporarily lost their composure.

“I just know that when I was up in the air, somebody cut under me,” Nachbar said. “It was something that I wouldn’t do to someone else, but it was just something that happened. It’s basketball.”

Malone’s basketball, for sure.

“The most important thing,” Malone said, “is to hold your ground within the rules. It’s just one of those things. You just have to come out and play. It’s the playoffs and it is more physical, but I don’t get caught up in it.

“I don’t have an ax to grind. Looking forward to Wednesday. Hopefully, we have the same attitude.”

In the moments after that, Malone was fouled on the other end by Nachbar, snapped something at him (“Hit me harder than that,” he claimed) and made a couple of free throws. But the game moved on, and found itself in the final minutes of regulation, the Lakers well ahead and seemingly coasting.

The Lakers led, 69-55, near the end of the third quarter, 73-63 early in the fourth and 77-69 midway through the fourth.

Bryant missed his next five shots, including one each on the Lakers’ final three possessions of regulation, and the Lakers missed nine of their last 11 shots. They did not score for the final 4 minutes 36 seconds, after a Payton layup that gave them an 81-77 lead.

The Rockets finished regulation on a 12-4 run, four on Cuttino Mobley drives to the front of the rim, the last two on a Steve Francis jumper from the top of the key with 39 seconds left.

Between regulation and overtime, Phil Jackson said he thought “we were despondent,” and the Lakers did indeed fall behind, 87-83. The Rockets finished with two missed shots and two turnovers, while Malone and Bryant drove a 9-1 game-ending, series-pushing run.

In the moments after the win, and now on the verge of putting away the Rockets, Malone thought of his mother, Shirley, who died suddenly last summer.

He had played with a four-inch tear across the back of his jersey, that being the handhold Nachbar found as he fell to earth in the second quarter. It started above the “O” in Malone and finished at the back of his shoulder, a tilde that might have changed the emphasis of the series.

He had played hard, his season-long deference to O’Neal and Bryant was gone, and he had, in his mind, stood his ground. O’Neal had 17 points and 12 rebounds. Payton returned to the fourth quarter. And Malone’s still in there pounding.

“These are games here, I wish my mom was sitting there,” he said. “After the game, that’s what I thought of the most. ... These are the days you look forward to, the days that are important to you.”

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The Lucky Seven

In NBA playoff history, 150 teams have trailed in a series, 3-1. Of those, only seven have gone on to win the series:

*--* Year Winner Opponent Round 1967-68 Boston Philadelphia Eastern Division finals 1969-70 Lakers Phoenix Western Division semifinals 1978-79 Washington San Antonio Eastern Conference finals 1980-81 Boston Philadelphia Eastern Conference finals 1994-95 Houston Phoenix Western Conference semifinals 1996-97 Miami New York Eastern Conference semifinals 2002-03 Detroit Orlando Eastern Conference first round

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