Shaw Has Confidence in Team

That’s four pretty average playoff games in four tries for the Lakers, which got Brian Shaw to thinking about what Portland Trail Blazer guard Steve Kerr said last week.

“Last year, they didn’t look beatable,” Shaw recited from memory. “This year they do.”

He shrugged. They’ve gotten this far on poor shooting and a rhythm-less offense, he said, which leaves plenty of opportunity for improvement. Still, Shaw felt it necessary to dispute Kerr’s assessment.

“That’s fine,” he said. “We don’t think we are. We have a lot better games in us.”

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Before the game, before Shaquille O’Neal had narrowed it down to a “Spider-Man” incident, a Laker official said O’Neal had suffered “some kind of household accident.”

O’Neal required four stitches low on his left forearm after his arm crashed into a bathroom glass, apparently while pretending to climb a wall. He attended “Spider-Man” Friday night.

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Game 1 was there for O’Neal and Kobe Bryant at the end in part because of what Samaki Walker did in the beginning.

Ineffective in the first round against Portland, Walker played gamely against San Antonio’s Tim Duncan, and in 25 minutes had 12 points and nine rebounds. He made five of six shots, two in the third quarter after taking offensive rebounds.

Early in the third quarter, with the Spurs leading, 40-39, Walker and Duncan each had 10 points and Walker never got in foul trouble.

By the end of the game, the Lakers doubled hard at Duncan, often forcing him to find open shooters on the perimeter.

“Tim is a great player,” Walker said. “There’s no one player who can stop him.”

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Rick Fox hopes to spend his summer involved in two acting projects, he said Sunday.

He is considering parts in two movies-- “Holes” and “August and Everything After.”

Fox had to ease off a regular gig on the HBO series “Oz” because it often was shot during basketball season.

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Pregame Phil Jackson, on whether he prepared as though David Robinson would play Sunday: “Did he travel with the team?”

Yes.

“Is he dressed in uniform?”

Yes.

“OK then. That’s why you plan.”

Robinson did not play.

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The Lakers scored 32 points in the first half, their season low.... Bryant missed six of 10 free-throw attempts.