The playoffs arrived, the Lakers were threatened and Shaquille O'Neal bailed them out.
O'Neal's only basket of the second half, a dunk off an airball by Kobe Bryant with 17.4 seconds remaining, provided the winning points in the Los Angeles Lakers' 72-71 victory Saturday over the Houston Rockets.
The Lakers shot 25 percent in the second half (10-of-40) and 32.9 percent overall, and were outrebounded 51-41. Still, they emerged with the victory when Jim Jackson missed an open 3-pointer from the left corner just before time expired.
With the Rockets leading by one point and the shot clock running down, Bryant tried a 3-pointer despite having two defenders on him and missed everything. But O'Neal snatched the ball out of the air and rammed it into the basket while being fouled by Yao Ming, who committed his sixth personal.
O'Neal missed the free throw -- his 10th failure in 14 attempts from the foul line -- and the Rockets got the rebound and called timeout. Steve Francis drove around two defenders but ran into O'Neal, forcing him to pass the ball to Jackson in the corner. The shot hit the rim and bounced away as time ran out.
O'Neal scored 16 of his 20 points in the first half and had 17 rebounds. Bryant took just one shot in the first half and finished with 16 points, five rebounds and six assists, shooting 4-for-19 from the field.
Francis led the Rockets with 18 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Jackson and Maurice Taylor added 11 points each; Yao had 10 points and 11 rebounds, and Cuttino Mobley also scored 10.
Game 2 will be played Monday night at Staples Center before the best-of-seven first-round series moves to Houston for the third and fourth games.
Derek Fisher and Kareem Rush made 3-pointers -- the first points of the game for both -- to give the Lakers a 58-55 lead, and Rush made another 3-pointer to make it 63-59.
Jackson scored the game's next five points to put the Rockets on top, but two free throws by Fisher and another pair by Bryant gave the Lakers a 67-64 lead.
A free throw by Francis and a jumper by Taylor tied it at 69, and after O'Neal missed two foul shots, Francis made a pair with 2:02 left to give the Rockets a two-point lead.
O'Neal's free throw with 1:30 left drew the Lakers within one, and there was no more scoring until his decisive dunk.
The Lakers, seeded second in the Western Conference, are shooting for their fourth title in five years. The Rockets, seeded seventh, are in the playoffs for the first time since 1999, when they were eliminated by the Lakers in the first round.
Pacers 104, Celtics 88
Jermaine O'Neal had 24 points and 11 rebounds, and Ron Artest added 24 points and stellar defense on Paul Pierce to lead the Indiana Pacers over the Boston Celtics 104-88 in Game 1 of their series.
Last year, Pierce scored 21 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the opening-round series, allowing the Celtics to overcome a 16-point deficit to get the win on their way to eliminating Indiana in six games.
Not this time. Pierce scored 11 points in the first quarter, but Artest didn't let him get free for the rest of the game.
One of the favorites for defensive player of the year, Artest held Pierce to 1-for-10 shooting in the final three periods as the Pacers opened up a huge lead.
Pierce went 8-for-10 from the free throw line and finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Without Pierce, the Celtics were no match for the deep and talented Pacers.
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