LOS ANGELES - The task facing the Lakers against the Spurs seems almost impossible.
The Lakers must win four of five games from a team that has taken 17 straight and has not lost since late March.
The first step is not looking at it that way.
"They're due for a loss," Lakers forward Rick Fox said Thursday. "We are due to play a much better game. We're confident we're not out of the series."
The Lakers had opportunities to win both games in the best-of-seven West semifinal in San Antonio, but their inability to finish led to a pair of 10-point losses.
"They kind of ran out of gas in the last quarter," San Antonio's Manu Ginobili said.
Games 3 and 4 are Sunday afternoon and Tuesday night in Los Angeles.
"Things can change quickly, so we have to keep our wits about us, try to stay composed and do the things we normally do and hope that the shots continue to go down," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.
His team is 6-0 in the playoffs after winning its last 11 games of the regular season. Only seven teams in league playoff history have rallied from 2-0 deficits to win a best-of-seven series.
"They're okay," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said of his players. "We did this last year."
After losing the first two games of the conference semifinals in San Antonio last May, the Lakers won the next two at Staples Center.
The Spurs won Games 5 and 6 en route to the championship, but it might have been a different story had Robert Horry's 3-pointer in the final seconds of Game 5 not rattled in and out, leaving San Antonio with a 96-94 victory.
Now Horry plays for the Spurs.
Neither team practiced Thursday. The Lakers gathered to watch film before being sent home.
"This is no rocket science project going on here," said Jackson, explaining that his team needs to cut down on turnovers and do a better job getting back on defense. "We can take solace in that we've found ways to get back in the ballgame."
The Spurs outscored the Lakers 26-13 in the fourth quarter of Game 1 for an 88-78 victory and 15-7 down the stretch in Game 2 tow win 95-85.
"It's all tied together - offense and defense," Jackson said. "Taking care of the basketball is a priority for us.
"Shaq had an exceptional game that we wasted."
Jackson referred to Shaquille O'Neal's 32-point, 15-rebound performance in Game 2. Kobe Bryant, meanwhile, had 15 points and eight assists on a day critical comments by O'Neal's stepfather, Philip Harrison, were published by the San Antonio Express-News.
"Kobe Bryant could be one of the best players that ever played the game if he learned how to play team basketball," Harrison told the newspaper. "The game is played inside out, not outside in. You play team basketball, no problem. You have to establish the inside game first."
Jackson doesn't believe Harrison's comments made any difference.
"People don't understand we don't make a big deal of those things," Jackson said. "You just have to let it roll off you and play on."
San Antonio's Tony Parker proved too much for the Lakers in the first two games, getting 50 points and 14 assists.
"We may have to take what we can get against Tony," Jackson said. "We have to accept that and live around it."
Fox smiled when asked about the possibility of a Laker committing a hard foul on Parker on one of his drives to the basket.
"You can't hit what you can't catch," Fox said.
Parker has outplayed Gary Payton, his counterpart with the Lakers. Payton and Karl Malone were added this season to combat the likes of Parker and teammate Tim Duncan, but they were unsuccessful in the first two games.
BUCKS: Point guard T.J. Ford had surgery for the bruised spinal cord that sidelined him the last two months of the season. Ford should recover in time for training camp in October, the Bucks said.
The rookie had the surgery in Los Angeles, where he was expected to stay a few days before returning home to Houston. Ford did not play after getting injured Feb. 24 when he landed on his tailbone during the fourth quarter of a game against Minnesota.
He averaged 7.1 points, 6.5 assists and 3.2 rebounds while sharing point guard duties with Damon Jones. When Ford was hurt, he was leading all rookies in assists.
REFS' REQUEST: Referees asked the league for a stand-by official during the last two rounds of the playoffs, giving the three-person officiating teams a backup in case one of them gets hurt. A referee had to leave a playoff game three times this year, leaving the remaining two members to finish the game.
The league switched to three-person officiating crews from two-person crews in 1988. The referee union proposal says it would cost the league about $80,000 to add the stand-by official - and that's if the conference championships and NBA title series all go the maximum seven games.
Stu Jackson, the NBA's senior vice president of basketball operations, said the league would consider the referee union's proposal, but that a new program "is not imminent."
WNBA: Connecticut guard Debbie Black will be sidelined up to three weeks with a knee injury. The 5-foot-3 reserve point guard is set for surgery today. The season starts May 20.
