Slumping Lakers Beat Pacers 104-95

March 5, 1998 / 12:00 AM EST / CBS/AP

It wasn't exactly win one for the Gipper, but it certainly couldn't have hurt the cause of Los Angeles Lakers coach Del Harris.

Shaquille O'Neal made a surprising 13-of-15 foul shots and scored 29 points, and Rick Fox had nine of his 18 points in the fourth quarter as the Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers 104-95 Wednesday night.

The Lakers snapped a two-game losing streak and won for just the sixth time in 13 games since the All-Star break, a slump perhaps prompting a newspaper report that Harris was on the verge of being fired.

However, team spokesman John Black said before the game that the team had"no plans at this time to make any coaching change."

O'Neal, who entered the game having made just 49.6 percent of his free throws, also was 8-for-12 from the field and had 12 rebounds and five blocked shots.

"I'm capable of doing that when I concentrate," he said. "If I could shoot from the line like I did tonight, I could become a great player.

"We came out and played excellent, smart ball. If we can play like that, we're going to be a hard team to beat."

O'Neal had called the Lakers a dumb team because we don't learn at the conclusion of a 3-3 road trip 48 hours earlier.

When asked if the report concerning Harris made a difference, O'Neal replied,"We just wanted to play well anyway. We've let a lot of games slip away. I'm pretty upset with the way I've been playing, so I just wanted to come in and play."

Guard Derek Fisher, who had 13 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, said the team realizes any decision on Harris will be made by the front office.

"We really wanted to come out and prove to ourselves we are a good basketball team," Fisher said."Our motivation was that we haven't been playing good basketball."

And Elden Campbell, who had 11 rebounds to help the Lakers to a 42-29 advantage in that department, said he didn't believe the team was sending a message.

"We're just playing, doing our job," he said.

Harris, in his fourth season as coach of the Lakers and 13th as an NBA head coach, ranks 18th on the league's career coaching list with 529 victories. His teams have an overall regular-season record of 529-448.

"What's going to be is going to be," he said. "I'm coaching until I'm not coaching."

The victory moved the Lakers (40-18) within 4½ games of the Pacific Division-leading Seattle SuperSonics.

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Pacers (41-18), who hadn't been beating since a 96-89 setback to the Lakers in Indiana on Feb. 25.

"They played much better than we did," said Reggie Miller, who led the Pacers with 24 points."We put them on the foul line too many times and they got too many easy shots and easy baskets. That's definitely not he brand of basketball we want to play for 48 minutes."

The teams combined to commit 70 personal fouls - 40 by the Pacers - and the Lakers were 37-of-50 from the foul line to 21-of-32 for Indiana.

Rik Smits scored 19 points for the Pacers, but fouled out with 8:36 left in the game. He was limited to 15 minutes due to foul trouble.

"They got a lot of calls early and we got in foul trouble," Pacers coach Larry Bird said."Smits was playing pretty well and moving good, but he ever got a feel for the game because he was always in foul trouble."

Eddie Jones scored 18 points and Kobe Bryant added 15 for the Lakers, who made 20-of-30 shots in taking a 59-46 halftime lead. The Pacers weren't closer than six points after that.

It was 89-83 when the Lakers went on a 9-4 run to make it 98-87 with 1½ minutes left.

Notes: The game was played before a crowd of 17,505 - the 17th sellout in 30 games at the Forum this season. ... Smits wasn't the only player to foul out without playing very much - Lakers forward Corie Blount picked up his sixth foul with 2:37 left in the third quarter after playing just eight minutes. ... The Pacers entered the game having made an NBA-leading 39.5 percent of their 3-point shots, but they missed their first nine before Miller connected with 5:20 left in the game. ... The Lakers completed a sweep of the Pacers for the first time since the 1993-94 season with their seventh win in the last 10 games between the teams. ... The Lakers are 39-11 in the all-time series with the Pacers and 9-1 in the last 10 games between the teams at the Forum.