NBA

Vujacic proves to be unlikely hero for Lakers

Laker reserve guard scores 20 points in 28 minutes to keep L.A. alive

Jed Jacobsohn / Getty Images

Sasha Vujacic came off the bench to score 20 points in 28 minutes Tuesday. The Lakers won but trail the Celtics 2-1 in the NBA Finals.

"Speaking Italian helped us become closer friends," said Vujacic. "It helps sometimes in games. We tell each other where or when to cut and it leads to an easy bucket because no one on the other team can understand what we're saying."

Except when you're playing against Ginobili?

"Except then."

Earlier in his career Vujacic was criticized by Jackson for being "an 11 o'clock player," implying that the dead-eye shooter who appeared during game-day shootarounds was often a no-show later that evening. The truth is that Vujacic is both an 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. player. Lisa Estrada, the longtime director of the Laker Girls, says that Sasha often visits the team's practice facility in El Segundo to work on his shot late into the evening.

"We will be rehearsing and Sasha will enter the gym carrying a basketball," says Estrada, who deserves an assist for persuading Vujacic to wear that thin brown headband ("He was fiddling with his hair too much"). "'Lisa, is it okay if I shoot?' he'll ask. 'Just go over to the side', I tell him."

Shooting hoops where the Laker Girls rehearse. Vujacic cannot be that much of a rock head.

In Game 3 Vujacic did not start, but his 28 minutes were more than any Laker besides Bryant and center Pau Gasol. In the closing minutes, he was the only non-starter on the floor, taking the place of fellow Balkanite Vladimir Radmanovic. That was because Jackson could see that Sasha wanted the moment.

Too many times in the post-Shaq era, Kobe Bryant has been compelled to be a one-man offensive show — and has been criticized, often unfairly, for doing so. Midway through the 3rd quarter of Game 3, Bryant had nearly half the Lakers' 58 points — and still L.A. trailed. Indeed, it has usually been easier to beat L.A. when Bryant eclipses 40 or 50 points than when he does not in the playoffs.

And yet Bryant, one can see from the way he spent the first halves of so many playoff games this spring (2 points versus San Antonio in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals), sees the folly in that role. He does not aspire to be Eddie Murphy, another Game 3 attendee, starring in a roundball redux of Norbit.

If the Lakers are to become just the fourth team to dig out of an 0-2 NBA Finals deficit, Bryant will need comrades in arms. Teammates who embrace the pressure, in fact thrive on it. On Tuesday night Vujacic answered that roll call. Announced himself as someone whom Bryant can trust when it matters most.

It was as if the two were speaking their own language.

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