Phil Jackson brings the snark, Kurt Rambis the praise for Lakers

The coach of the winning team zinged away at his players while the coach of the losing team had nothing but nice things to say about everybody.

Make sense? Not necessarily, unless it’s Phil Jackson and his former protege, Kurt Rambis.

The Lakers had just walloped the Minnesota Timberwolves, 112-95, when Jackson cranked up the Friday night psychology, trying to keep his players motivated, or on edge, or something in between. It’s a long season, after all.

Rambis, on the other hand, saw nothing wrong with the Lakers.

“They are a team that can come down and take your good defense or high-quality defense and make a difficult shot and turn your defense into nothing,” he said. “They are a poised, organized, veteran ball club and whenever things weren’t going well for us they found a way to kind of push the button and get the shots they needed.”

Rambis knows all too well about the Lakers. He was an assistant for four seasons alongside Jackson before taking the job as the Timberwolves’ head coach before last season.

“You have so many guys you have to worry about inside,” he said. “[Ron] Artest because of his strength, Pau [Gasol] inside, Kobe [Bryant] inside, so you have to do a good job protecting that.”

Unlike the Timberwolves (4-10), the Lakers (11-2) are chasing a championship, the main rationale behind Jackson’s sharpening his words after the game and saving his strongest for Gasol. Jackson revealed he told Gasol that “the best European center’s on the other team today,” because Darko Milicic outplayed Gasol.

Milicic joined Kevin Garnett as the only players in Timberwolves history with at least 20 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and five blocked shots in one game.

Jackson did give players one reward after the game. He cancelled Saturday’s practice.

No records set

Matt Barnes was the Lakers’ top player Friday, making all seven of his shots, including five of five from three-point range, but he wasn’t close to the Lakers’ all-time record for shots without a miss.

Wilt Chamberlain made all 14 of his attempts in a 1969 game against Detroit.

Barnes was also short of the team record for three-point accuracy. Bryant made all seven of his three-point attempts in a January 2006 game against Philadelphia.

Barnes, however, should have had more shots, according to Derek Fisher.

“It’s a shame he couldn’t get more looks,” Fisher said. “He had it going good out there. Not pointing at anyone in particular, but when you’re having a good night, obviously you’d like to get as many good looks as you can.”

Coaching tree

Despite all his success, Jackson has had surprisingly few assistant coaches become head coaches. Currently, Rambis is the only one who fills that role.

A big reason: Jackson has low turnover among his assistant coaches. When they sit beside him, they tend to stay there for years . . . if not decades.

“Since I’ve been in L.A., we’ve had some guys that have [head coach] aspirations and should get jobs, and they probably will,” Jackson said.

Assistants Brian Shaw and Jim Cleamons have interviewed for head coach positions in recent years. (Cleamons was coach of the Dallas Mavericks in 1996-97 and the first few weeks of the following season.) Jackson also recognizes the future coaching potential of assistant Chuck Person.

Jackson, by the way, has had two former players in prominent front-office positions — Chicago Bulls executive vice president John Paxson in Chicago and Steve Kerr, who resigned as the Phoenix Suns’ general manager earlier this year.

Jackson also has a former player who owns the Charlotte Bobcats. Guy by the name of Michael Jordan.

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