It All Works Out in the End

A baseball manager can plot and strategize all he wants. Ultimately he’s only as good as his pinch-hitters make him look when they swing the bat or his relievers when they deliver to the plate.

Here it was, a summery evening on the brink of June and it felt like an October night of postseason baseball, when there’s a chill in the air and thousands of critical eyes locked on the bench preparing to second-guess every decision made by the men in charge.

Phil Jackson had those types of issues Monday, in a tense game that could have been won or lost with a few crucial choices.

He brain-locked when he left Shaquille O’Neal in with three fouls during the second quarter, and it almost cost him. But everything worked out for him in the fourth quarter, when he once again had to deal with O’Neal’s foul trouble, and when all of his moves came through just fine in the Lakers’ 96-90 victory.

I had baseball on my mind because Dodger Manager Jim Tracy sat three rows from the court, looking quite relaxed.

Tracy, to borrow a phrase from the sport of the guy sitting 10 feet from him (Phil Mickelson), was in the clubhouse with the lead. He had his victory for the day.

After the Dodgers rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning to tie the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday afternoon, Tracy summoned Gagne for the top of the 10th. He retired them without a run, stranding a runner on second base, setting the stage for the Dodgers to win it in the bottom of the inning on a run-scoring single by Cesar Izturis.

So when nervous time arrived at Staples Center, Tracy was far different from the portrait of tension you see in the Dodger dugout. His legs were crossed, a soft drink by his side, enjoying watching someone else twist and fidget for a change.

In the minutes O’Neal came out with his fifth personal foul it was like looking toward the bullpen for the closer. Send him in too early and he might not last long enough to finish. Wait too long and there might not be anything left to save. During a timeout with seven minutes left, I asked Tracy if he wanted to turn the tables, second-guess someone for a change and say when Jackson should send O’Neal back into the game.

Not on his off time, not when he isn’t paid to make those decisions.

“That’s why I’m just sitting here nice and quiet,” Tracy said.

Slava Medvedenko was in the game for O’Neal. The longer Medvedenko stayed in, the better he did. He made a layup off a pass from Derek Fisher.

He trapped Darrick Martin under the basket, forcing the Minnesota point guard to try a difficult shot, then Medvedenko grabbed the rebound.

Medvedenko scored over Kevin Garnett off a Karl Malone pass. He made a high-arching jump shot. He rebounded a miss by Kobe Bryant, which led to a trip to the free-throw line by Bryant.

It was Medvedenko and the hot-shooting Kareem Rush who extended the Laker lead from a tenuous three points to a comfortable 10.

Malone had done his best to make sure Medvedenko was productive when pressed into action in this critical game. He could tell by the look on Medvedenko’s face that the pressure was about to get to him.

“I study my teammates’ eyes,” Malone said. “I know my teammates.

“I tried to get Slava just to be involved in the game. Shoot, rebound, play defense. Just be involved. That’s what I talked to him about. All the time I tried to go over to him and pat him on the back and rub his head. There’s a way you can get a teammate built up and excited and happy. You can do that.”

Medvedenko had to do part of it without Malone on the floor. Malone picked up his fifth foul while trying to dislodge Garnett’s arm from him with 5:51 left.

Jackson called for O’Neal to replace Malone. He stayed in for about 2 1/2 minutes.

With slightly more than three minutes to play, the Timberwolves went to the extreme Hack-a-Shaq and fouled O’Neal away from the ball. But they tipped their hand too soon.

Call it the equivalent of announcing a pinch-hitter before knowing which pitcher he’ll face.

The Timberwolves were not in the penalty yet. Jackson saw what was coming, so he sent Malone back in to replace O’Neal with 3:06 left.

He planned on sending O’Neal back with less than two minutes, when a foul away from the ball is treated the same as a technical foul. But the Timberwolves never threatened again, so O’Neal didn’t return.

Jackson should have kept him on the bench in the second period.

The general NBA handbook says you don’t let a key player get his fourth foul before halftime. He followed that to the letter by removing and sitting Kobe Bryant following Bryant’s third personal foul with 9:44 left in the second quarter.

But he didn’t stick with it on O’Neal. O’Neal picked up No. 3 when he tried to block a Wally Szczerbiak shot with 2:11 left until halftime.

Jackson didn’t take him out

“We thought that we needed the presence of Shaquille out there to discourage them from taking the ball to the basket,” Jackson said.

“Obviously, it did not work.”

With 1:01 left, O’Neal switched out to guard Latrell Sprewell coming off a screen ... and bumped him.

Sometimes you have to take the prevailing conditions into account, such as the wind blowing in at Wrigley Field. The officials were clogging the game, calling 23 fouls in the second quarter. O’Neal was whistled for foul No. 4. No he had to come out.

Minnesota Coach Flip Saunders said he was a “a little bit” surprised that Jackson stayed with O’Neal.

“He tried to play with him a little bit, then he was trying to get him out, he had someone at the table,” Saunders said. “What you have to do is you have to attack and put him in an awkward position. That’s pretty much what happened.”

Jackson and the Lakers recovered. All in all, they managed just fine.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.