Trade Not Made Was Best for Him

There are two large frames in the game room of Robert Horry’s home in Houston.

One displays the front of a red and blue Detroit Piston uniform.

The other shows the back of a second Piston jersey, with “HORRY” across the shoulders.

Horry wore neither, never played for the Pistons, never played in Detroit as anything but a one-night visitor.

The 1994 trade that sent him from the Houston Rockets to the Pistons was voided when Sean Elliott was diagnosed with a kidney ailment. Horry returned to Houston a changed player, the one who on Sunday night made the three-pointer that resuscitated the Lakers’ hopes against the Sacramento Kings in the Western Conference finals.

Eight years after the trade that wasn’t, and after two more trades that were, Horry stood in a Laker jersey he wears well, and made the shot that made the season.

He has made the clutch routine, particularly in the last three seasons, two of them championships, a third perhaps six wins away. He said Monday afternoon that he kept those jerseys and mounted them as a reminder that sometimes he must make his basketball about him, because no one else will.

It reinforced something he said Sunday evening, shortly after his three-pointer beat the Kings.

“When that trade fell through, I came back with the attitude, like, ‘I’m going to shoot the ball regardless of what happens,’” Horry said. “I believe in myself more than I believe in other people. So from that point on I started taking shots.”

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Lindsey Hunter was in the huddle with 11.8 seconds to play Sunday, and therefore knew the play was not drawn for Horry.

Still, Hunter turned to Brian Shaw and said, “B, I’m telling you, Rob’s going to hit this.”

Before that, Hunter had knocked Horry on the elbow and said, “C’mon Rob, give me one, baby.”

When the shot hit, Horry looked first for Hunter in the rush of players and coaches charging toward him, and both laughed at Hunter’s premonition.

“I just had that feeling,” Hunter said.

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Shaquille O’Neal declined a chance to meet with the media herd Monday afternoon. He left the floor in bare feet, limping noticeably, without expression.

He is experiencing his usual discomfort in his arthritic toe, the ailment Coach Phil Jackson suggested nearly cost the Lakers in Game 4.

After the game, referring to the layup O’Neal missed on the final sequence, Jackson told him, “You know you had an opportunity to tie that game up.”

O’Neal’s response?

“He just looked at me,” Jackson said. “I’m sure he got hit across his arm on that thing, but usually he has the power to put that back hard and determined.”

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Devean George has 23 rebounds in the series, 13 on the offensive end.... Derek Fisher is three for 19 from the three-point line. Hunter is four for 16. George is three for 15. Rick Fox is one for seven.