 Los Angeles' Samaki Walker rises above the Rockets for a shot. Bill Baptist NBAE/Getty Images 56k | 300k |
Los Angeles led, 94-89, when the Rockets scored four straight points to close within one. O'Neal made it 98-95 on a dunk with 90 seconds left, but Kevin Willis answered with a dunk to close the gap.
Houston wound up with the last shot, but Cuttino Mobley drove toward the lane and threw a pass off the hands of Willis.
"We didn't have any timeouts," Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "We ran a pretty good play to get Cuttino open, but he passed it off and then we fumbled it."
"I should've shot the last shot," Mobley said. "I passed it to Kevin and Rick Fox made a big defensive play to tip the ball away. But I should've shot the ball, it's my fault."
Willis recovered and tried to shoot the ball over the basket as he fell out of bounds. O'Neal wound up with the ball after wrestling it out of the hands of Steve Francis and time expired.
"An ugly win is still a win," O'Neal said. "And that's what we wanted here. This is a good win for us. Every team plays us tough. We made a lot of mental mistake and have to get better."
The Lakers extended their season-opening winning streak to seven games and remained the NBA's lone undefeated team.
"This is the first team we've played with a record over .500," Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson said. "We're coasting on a pretty easy schedule right now."
Francis had 26 points and 12 rebounds for Houston, which has lost three in a row after opening the season 5-1. Mobley, who missed Tuesday's game at San Antonio with a sprained left ankle, also scored 26 points.
The Rockets shot just 39 percent (35-of-89) from the floor and made 3-of-18 3-pointers. But they made 24-of-25 free throws and had a 52-42 rebounding edge led by Kenny Thomas, who grabbed 14 boards.
Los Angeles shot 45 percent (41-of-92) and went to the line only 18 times, but committed just seven turnovers.
Bryant made 13-of-27 shots from the floor and drained seven straight attempts bridging the second and third quarters as Los Angeles built a 60-45 lead 5:18 into the second half.
But the Rockets closed the third on a 21-9 run led by Francis, who scored eight points during the spurt and closed the quarter with a three-point play. Willis scored nine of his 15 points during the spurt.
Los Angeles scored seven straight points early in the fourth to open a 78-70 lead with 9:25 left, but Houston scored 11 of the next 14 points and tied it on a jumper by Mobley with 3:49 to go.
The Lakers had an 85-83 lead with less than a minute remaining when Francis was tied up by Lindsey Hunter, forcing a jump ball. Francis tipped the ball to Mobley, who misread the shot clock and immediately fired an airball out of bounds from well beyond the 3-point line.
Hunter missed a chance to put away the game with 17 seconds left when he missed two free throws that would have given Los Angeles a four-point lead. He has made just 5-of-13 free throws this season.
Mobley was fouled driving to the basket with seven seconds remaining and made both free throws to forge a tie. O'Neal missed a hook shot with two seconds left and Francis missed a half-court shot at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.
"We gave them life at the end with a couple of plays and we missed some free throws," Jackson said. "It was almost a long night in Houston, but we rallied in overtime."