Spurs, Lakers renew postseason rivalry

LOS ANGELES — The Spurs-Lakers rivalry has been on hiatus since 2004 for one simple reason: The Lakers haven’t been very good.

They are now.

So the NBA’s dominant teams of the past decade meet again, with the winner taking a giant step toward another possible championship.

“As far as the playoffs go, it’s San Antonio,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said Tuesday when asked if the Spurs were his team’s biggest rival.

“We’ve had our battles. We’ve had some great matchups,” Lakers star Kobe Bryant said. “It feels great to be back at that level, matching up with San Antonio.”

Game 1 of the Western Conference finals is tonight at Staples Center, where the Lakers are 6-0 in the postseason and winners of 12 straight overall including a 106-85 victory over the Spurs in their next-to-last game of the regular season.

The teams have combined to win seven of the last nine championships, with the Spurs prevailing in 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007 and the Lakers doing so from 2000-02. They also came close in 2004, losing to Detroit in the NBA finals.

Shaquille O’Neal was traded that summer, and the Lakers hit the skids, failing to win a playoff series for three straight years. That prompted Bryant to demand a trade following their elimination last spring.

But to most everyone’s surprise, the Lakers returned to elite status this season, and enter the conference finals with a league-best 8-2 record in the playoffs, having swept Denver and beaten Utah in six games.

“It’s always great to play against the Lakers,” San Antonio’s Tony Parker said Monday night after the Spurs’ 91-82 victory at New Orleans that propelled them into the conference finals. “Kobe’s at his best; they have a great team. It reminds me of my first couple of years in the league. Back to the rivalry. It will be great.”

The well-rested Lakers, who haven’t played since Friday night, already figured to be facing a travel-weary team. But that was before the Spurs’ trip to Los Angeles took on nightmare proportions.

Their departure from New Orleans was delayed several hours after their plane had mechanical problems. Because of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association’s annual convention, which attracted about 20,000 people to New Orleans, the Spurs were unable to find hotel rooms in the city.

“We slept on the plane — as much as you can sleep,” team spokesman Cliff Puchalski said Tuesday. “We tried to keep some normal semblance of order.”

Puchalski said the team slept on the plane with the mechanical problems before boarding another plane that was brought in from Minneapolis. The team finally took off about 6:30 a.m. Central time, Puchalski said, and landed in Los Angeles about four hours later.

The Spurs didn’t practice Tuesday.

After he expressed his deepest respect for the San Antonio players and coach Gregg Popovich, Bryant was asked if he felt sorry for them following their travel problems.

“No, not at all,” he said with a smile.

Teammate Pau Gasol had a similar reaction. “There’s no sympathy,” he said. “This is not a time for sympathy. No mercy. This is a time to compete.”

Jackson said he didn’t expect the incident to be a factor tonight.

“The NBA is a grueling marathon of a season,” he said. “They’ll be rested; they’ll be fine.”

The Lakers have a 7-3 record against the Spurs in the postseason, including 3-0 in the conference finals. They last met at this stage of the playoffs seven years ago, with the Lakers sweeping the Spurs on their way to a best-ever 15-1 postseason record.

The teams met in the conference semifinals in each of the next three years, with the Lakers winning twice, most recently in 2004, when they lost the first two games before winning the last four.

Game 5 provided a classic finish, with Spurs star Tim Duncan making what appeared to be a game-winning jump shot from the top of the key, before Derek Fisher’s turnaround jumper after the Lakers took possession following a series of timeouts with .4 seconds to play.

“I’m sure it will come up a lot,” said Fisher, who left the Lakers following the 2003-04 season but returned this season. “Hopefully we won’t need anything remotely close to that to win.”