Robert Horry's Laker career could end tonight, after 6 1/2 seasons, three championships and a handful of memorable jump shots that earned him a reputation as a big-game player.

The Lakers are not expected to exercise a $5.3-million option on Horry's contract for next season. Unless General Manager Mitch Kupchak is able to reach a sign-and-trade deal with another team by midnight ? and those efforts for the last six weeks have proved fruitless ? Horry probably will become a free agent on Tuesday.

He then would be free to negotiate with all teams, including the Lakers, who probably would offer a contract at something closer to $1.4 million, the veteran's minimum. Horry, who will be 33 in August, previously had expressed an interest in finishing his career closer to his home in Houston, if he were not asked back to Los Angeles.

He averaged 6.5 points last season, then 5.6 points in the postseason, when he missed 36 of 38 three-point attempts. One, at the end of Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals in San Antonio, would have given the Lakers the win and a three-games-to-two advantage in that series.