With Sweep, Lakers’ Trip Quite Fantastic

CLEVELAND —  Road trip!

The Lakers traveled to and fro, hither and yon, from the heartland to Disney World to the Delaware Valley and finally, on Wednesday night, to the comfortable environs of Gund Arena, where they marched themselves into franchise history.

That’s a long road to go, any way you measure it.

Capped by their 116-98 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Lakers finished a dramatic sweep of their six-game, nine-day trip, which extended their overall winning streak to nine games and exceeded all realistic expectations.

Though other Laker teams have put together longer road winning streaks, never before had a Laker team swept a specific trip of six games or longer, the closest being a 5-1 trip from December 1967 to January 1968.

“It’s one of those mileage points, little checkpoints along a season in which a team can look back, be proud of,” Coach Phil Jackson said of the triumphant trip.

“You know, we had to be real concentrated about all our energy and our direction and we had to play with purpose. And we did something that was very special.”

With the victory, the Lakers also raised their overall record to 43-11, good enough to tie Portland for the best record in the NBA and for first place in the Pacific Division.

But the big story was the trip, and if they were not quite nine days that changed the NBA, it was close enough.

“Yeah, it’s a long trip,” said Shaquille O’Neal, who got into early foul trouble and was only the team’s third-leading scorer with 19 points, but had seven assists and four blocked shots. “I think I forgot where I live at, been on the road so long.

“But we did what we were supposed to do.”

It was actually a 14-day trip for Jackson, O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, who participated in the All-Star game. After that came victories in Chicago, Charlotte, Orlando, Philadelphia and New Jersey in short order.

As in each of the previous games, the Lakers did not play brilliantly Wednesday, and several times Cleveland, especially when rookie Andre Miller (23 points, nine assists) had the ball, looked poised to seize the momentum.

But the Lakers overcame the crowd and some adverse moments (O’Neal’s foul trouble, off shooting nights by Bryant and Glen Rice), played sharp defense when they had to, found a way to edge out to a fourth-quarter lead (Robert Horry scored a season-high 20 points on seven-for-eight shooting) and then refused to let Cleveland back in it.

The Lakers led by three going into the fourth quarter, then outscored the Cavaliers, 35-20, in the fourth.

In that last period, while Cavalier centerpiece Shawn Kemp was en route to a rare, foul-out, throw-out performance--drawing two technical fouls about 30 seconds after his sixth personal foul--the Lakers had O’Neal working with fresh legs and Horry bombing in three-pointers (making four of five).

“Robert is one of the main keys, if not the key to this team, because he does so many things,” said Bryant, who scored 21 points on nine-for-22 shooting and had six assists. “He’s so versatile, he can be everywhere defensively. He takes charges, he gets loose balls, rebounds, threes, passing . . .

“Robert does a lot of things for this ballclub. So when he’s playing like that, like he did tonight, that makes us so much better.”

Said Horry, whose previous season-high was 12: “Some nights you shoot the ball well, some nights you don’t. You know, lately, I haven’t been taking a lot of shots. [But] my shot has been feeling pretty good. Tonight I just happened to shoot the ball. It happened to fall for me.”

For the Cavaliers, meanwhile, Kemp was not the only one to lose his cool. Center Mark Bryant was thrown out of the game in the final minutes after exchanging words with O’Neal, then angrily gesturing to O’Neal in a not-very-nice manner.

“It wasn’t important,” O’Neal said. “Those that talk in fairy tale land, I will see in real life. Figure that out. But I will. I will see him in real life. You know me.”

The Lakers now have the same number of road games as home games remaining (14 apiece), and, after their earlier 16-game winning streak, have a budding confidence about their ability to put together victories.

“[Going 6-0] meant a lot considering all the great Laker teams that have never done it,” Bryant said. “It’s a good thing for us to build on. We know that we can go on streaks like this, it helps our confidence.”

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NO DEALS IN WORKS

Phil Jackson is a little disappointed that Lakers probably won’t add a big man before the trade deadline today, but he feels non-move will be good for Glen Rice. Page 8

PHILADELPHIA 94, CLIPPERS 78

The losing streak reaches a dirty dozen (and 26 out of 28), and it appears that Maurice Taylor and Derek Anderson won’t be involved in any deals today. Page 7

MARK HEISLER ON NBA

The trading deadline is today, but with teams concerned about the salary cap, don’t expect any big names to be on the move (unless you count Isaiah Rider). Page 7