EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The New Jersey Nets didn't know what to do with Shaquille O'Neal for the first two games of the NBA Finals and the Los Angeles Lakers rode his giant shoulders to a 2-0 series lead.
As the scene shifted east, the Nets didn't do much with O'Neal again last night, but it was the other half of the Lakers' dynamic duo, Kobe Bryant, who provided the firepower behind Los Angeles' 106-103 victory.
Bryant capped a brilliant 36 point-performance with the game-winning basket with 19.1 seconds to go to give the Lakers a commanding 3-0 lead in the best of seven series. Game 4 scheduled here at Continental Airlines Arena Wednesday night.
"I wanted [the ball in the fourth quarter]. I wasn't going to let them take it from me." Bryant said. "We're battle-tested. That's what I kept telling the fellas in timeouts."
O'Neal scored 35 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in yet another commanding effort, but the night belonged to Bryant, who scored 24 in Game 2.
New Jersey's Jason Kidd poured in 30 points for the Nets, including a three-pointer with 5.2 seconds left to cut the Los Angeles lead to one, but after Rick Fox hit two free throws with 3.7 seconds remaining, Kidd missed a desperation three at the buzzer that would have forced overtime.
The Nets, who drifted behind by as much as 11 in the third quarter, scratched together a stirring run at the end of the third period, outscoring Los Angeles 10-2 over the final 2:07 with Kidd at the controls, either scor ing himself or dishing to Kenyon Martin or Richard Jefferson for scores.
The Nets tied the score at 78 on Martin's layup with 1.8 seconds left in the quarter, and the crowd, savoring its first Finals game in the franchise's 26 years, responded by imploring New Jersey to "Beat L.A."
Kidd's 10-foot jumper on the first possession of the fourth quarter gave the Nets their first lead since the 7:08 mark of the first quarter. From there, New Jersey increased the lead to as much as seven, as Martin sank a baseline jump hook with 8:10 left.
But the Lakers answered with a 15-4 run. Reserve forward Devean George scored six points on the run to provide some help. But Robert Horry repeated his penchant for big shots, hitting a three-pointer from the left wing with 3:04 remaining. The Nets missed on their next possession, then Bryant calmly sank a 20-foot jumper from the right wing with 2:16 to go.
Kidd responded with a 21-foot jumper at 1:52 to get the lead back to two, but O'Neal scored on a turnaround on the baseline with 57.8 seconds to go to put Los Angeles ahead at 102-98.
The Nets got a sliver of an opening when Bryant missed two free throws with 42.7 seconds remaining. Keith Van Horn, who had badly missed on a three-pointer a few minutes earlier, hit a long-range shot that appeared at first to be a three-point shot but was worth two, making it a two-point shot, with 34.1 to go.
On the ensuing possession, O'Neal got the ball in deep, and kicked it out to Bryant, who muscled Kidd into the lane. Kittles came over to help, but Bryant turned and somehow willed a one-handed shot to fall.
Before the game, Nets coach Byron Scott bemoaned the number of mental mistakes his team has been committing in the series, as well as the notion that New Jersey seemed to be playing in spurts rather than consistently.
"You"ve got to compete at a high level with this team." Scott said. "You can't have the types of peaks and valleys that we've had. We play at a high level of intensity for about five, six minutes, then we come back down. We've got to try and keep that same kind of pace and same intensity for 48 minutes. It is important."
The Nets, who had been outscored in the first periods of Games 1 and 2 by a combined 56-35, came out inspired. Horn and Kittles each hit short baskets on New Jersey's first two possessions, and it appeared as though the Lakers might be in trouble.
However, the Lakers responded with an 11-4 run, with two short jumpers from O'Neal - four of his first-half 21 points - and three-pointers from Fox and Derek Fisher. The Nets took a 14-13 lead with 7:08 remaining in the first on Todd MacCulloch's layup, but Los Angeles fired back with an 11-0 run, as O'Neal hit a jumper and a free throw, Bryant sank two foul shots and Fisher had two more in the spurt. Los Angeles led by 10, and then 31-23 at the end of the quarter.
The Lakers threatened to blow the game open in the second, leading by as much as 14 on an O'Neal follow with 5:13 remaining. But the Nets, perhaps sensing their last chance to get into the series, responded with an 8-0 flurry, capped by a three-pointer from Van Horn at the 4:22 mark that cut it to 42-36.
After O'Neal sank two free throws, New Jersey sliced the deficit to four, when Fox was called for a flagrant foul on Martin with 3:04 left in the half. Martin hit both free throws, then sank a turnaround banker over Fox on the ensuing possession to get the Nets to within four at 46-42, the closest they had been since the 5:12 mark of the first period.