For months, he has insisted the nickname most fans know him by was bestowed on him by someone else.
Sasha Vujacic, contrary to the popularly told story, did not name himself “The Machine.” He just fits it incredibly well.
After scoring 20 points in the Lakers’ Game 3 victory over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night, there will be no doubt about the origins of his second nickname.
“Well, he’s a little bit of a rockhead,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “That’s what we call him. He believes in himself very sincerely that he’s going to make the next one, and you have to be that way if you’re going to have the guts to go out there and do it.”
That couldn’t have been easy after the first two games of the NBA Finals.
Vujacic, like the rest of the Lakers bench struggled mightily, making just 5 of his 13 shots and scoring just eight points in each of the games in Boston.
He was even worse in the San Antonio series, shooting just 10-of-33 from the field while expending most of his energy chasing Manu Ginobili around the court.
But Tuesday night, with the Lakers’ backs already firmly against the wall, down 0-2 in the series, Lamar Odom still looking like a “confused player,” Pau Gasol being “totally out of whack” and Derek Fisher doing little except getting to the free-throw line, the Lakers needed some offense outside of Kobe Bryant, and Vujacic stepped up to provide it.
He made 7 of 10 shots, including 3 of 5 from behind the 3-point arc.
“Sometimes the shots are not going to go in, sometimes they are. The most important thing is when I had the opportunity to take the shots, when I had open shots, I live for those shots,” Vujacic said.
Had he not made them, the Lakers championship hopes quite possibly could have died. No NBA team has ever come back from an 0-3 deficit to win a series. Vujacic said he enjoyed the pressure of the moment.
“That’s what I love the most,’ that’s what I live for, those kind of games,” Vujacic said. “This is what I’ve played my whole life for. To be in the NBA Finals.”
The key, Vujacic said, when all the pressure seems to be building, and the shot has to be made, is not to think and just rely on the muscle memory from all those thousands and thousands of shots he’s always stayed late after practice to take.
In the fourth quarter, that moment found Vujacic on three separate but equally important cases. After Boston had rallied to take the lead in the third quarter, Vujacic hit a 3-pointer 12 seconds into the fourth quarter to give the Lakers a 63-62 lead. The Celtics tied the game at 66-66 a few moments later, but Vujacic answered again with a 22-foot jumper.
“He was huge,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said. “I thought he was the key to the game.”
And he saved his biggest shot for last. With 1:53 to go in the game, and the Celtics still within reach of stealing the game, Vujacic threw a final dagger, rippling the net for another 3-pointer to stretch the Lakers lead back to 81-76.
“Those are the shots I live for,” he said. “I love the last five minutes of the game.”
