By Marc Stein
The Dallas Morning News

LOS ANGELES — The team with back-to-back titles, having waited an entire postseason for this night, finally had its two icons playing at something resembling full capacity.

It was still barely enough.

That team and those stars now have a Game 7 opportunity to extend their teetering championship reign.

It comes after what Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant did to save the Los Angeles Lakers late Friday night, O'Neal rumbling for 41 points and Bryant adding 31 in a 106-102 victory over Sacramento in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals.

"I told the fellas I want the ball," O'Neal explained.

O'Neal's nifty reverse layup and Bryant's four free throws in the final minute helped clinch it, forcing a winner-take-all showdown Sunday in Sacramento. They also combined for 28 rebounds, to offset Chris Webber's bid for a triple-double (26 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists) and 23 points from the Kings' Mike Bibby.

Bibby, though, couldn't connect on a hurried 3-point attempt with three seconds left in regulation, and Robert Horry sank 1 of 2 free throws to preserve the win, in which LA managed only two field goals in the final seven minutes.

O'Neal was at his most forceful, refusing to let an arthritic toe or bad ankles or extra poundage slow him now. He made his first 10 free throws, dribbled the ball upcourt after a couple fourth-quarter rebounds and wound up with his best playoff output of the spring.

Scot Pollard fouled out in 11 minutes trying to help Vlade Divac, who picked up his sixth foul with 2:56 to play. That forced Lawrence Funderburke and Webber to take turns on the monster, but O'Neal still had 12 points in the final period.

Lakers 106, Kings 102