Lakers practice the waiting game

Now comes the sitting, the waiting, the watching.

After a day off, the Lakers reconvened for practice today still without an opponent in mind.

Their second-round playoff opponent will come from the winner of the Utah Jazz and Houston Rockets series. The Jazz lead the series, 3-2, with Game 6 on Friday in Salt Lake City.

The Lakers may have as little as six days in between games and as many as nine.

Which is why some of the veterans – Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Derek Fisher – took today’s practice off to rest after their sweep of the Denver Nuggets in the first round.

The Lakers went 3-1 against the Jazz during the regular season and 1-2 versus Houston.

“I think they both present difficulties for us,” Fisher said. “We had a better season series against the Jazz than we did Houston, so one could argue in that regard. But I don’t know if there’s any opponent that is better than the other. I think they both are physical teams, they both play a great style of half-court basketball that at times has been a challenge for us to stop teams defensively, especially teams that execute well in the half-court.

“We’ll definitely be watching on Friday night,” he said.

Also, if the Lakers face Utah, some emotions will probably be there for Fisher. He was a member of the Jazz last year, playing an integral role in their playoff run. But he then asked to be let out of his contract to be closer to a better medical facility and care for his young daughter, Tatum, who had been diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer.

“I think I’ll really be able to manage the emotions that will be there,” he said. “I know what my overall purpose is in terms of my responsibility to my team. Outside of some of the normal emotions that you feel in the playoffs and obviously, if it’s the Jazz, some of the personal emotion will be there. But it means so much to me to be able to help this team win a championship that I feel I can keep myself in a place where winning four games would be all I’d be focused on.”

jonathan.abrams@latimes.com