Lakers keyed by aggressiveness

Shaquille O'Neal sparked Los Angeles past the Spurs.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Shaquille O'Neal dove headlong in a futile attempt to come up with a loose ball in the San Antonio backcourt.
A foul was called on the Los Angeles Lakers, but the crowd went crazy, loving the effort.
While O'Neal's decision to just go for it might not have been very smart, it helped get the Lakers off and running to a 105-81 victory over San Antonio on Sunday, cutting the Spurs' lead to 2 games to 1 in the Western Conference semifinals.
"It sparked us," Kobe Bryant said of the first-quarter play. "It let everybody know how big this game was and the sense of urgency that we needed to play with."
Percentages
Only seven NBA teams have come back to win a best-of-7 series after losing the first two games. But no team has ever prevailed after losing the first three -- a fact the Lakers knew only too well.
O'Neal had 28 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and eight blocked shots, prompting coach Phil Jackson to say, "He was incredible."
Bryant added 22 points, six rebounds and six assists; Gary Payton had 15 points and seven assists, and Karl Malone had 13 points, six rebounds and five assists for the Lakers, who shot 56.9 percent.
"We knew what we had to do today," O'Neal said. "We really didn't ever lose confidence, we just did not take care of the basketball and we let two games slip away. Today, we played good defense and shot the ball well."
San Antonio's loss snapped a 17-game winning streak -- the last 11 of the regular season and the first six of the playoffs. The Spurs had also won eight straight postseason games dating back to the NBA Finals against New Jersey last June.
Game 4 is Tuesday night at the Staples Center.
"Los Angeles really dismantled us," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "The aggressive team wins in the NBA, and especially in the playoffs, and I thought the Lakers were aggressive from the beginning."
Quick start
Tim Duncan scored 54 points, and Tony Parker had 50 points and 14 assists to lead the Spurs to a pair of 10-point victories to begin the series.
It was a much different story in Game 3 as Duncan shot 4-of-14 for 10 points and committed six turnovers, and Parker was 4-of-12 for eight points and had three turnovers -- one more than his total in the first two games.
"They were very aggressive out of the gate," Duncan said. "Guys were really stepping back into the lane and trying to get me to get rid of the ball. I thought they had a good defensive scheme and executed it well. They took us all out of our games."
Jackson said his team decided to plug the lane and give up the 3-point shot. The strategy worked, even though the Spurs shot 11-of-27 from 3-point range.
"We were a little more aggressive, screen roll-wise," Jackson said. "As a result, there wasn't a whole lot of opportunity."
Especially for Parker.
"The [defensive] help came faster," Parker said. "They played better defense, but I think the key is, we didn't match their energy."
Manu Ginobili scored 17 points and fellow reserve Devin Brown added 16 for the Spurs, who shot 34.1 percent and committed 21 turnovers -- two less than their total in the first two games.
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