Jackson Prepares for the Worst

Phil Jackson interrupted the pre-playoff buzz with a bit of bad news:

The Portland Trail Blazers are coming to town.

A few minutes after the Lakers shelved Golden State, the Laker coach reminded the media, effervescing fans, and, not-so-subtly, his players that the Lakers had been handled twice already this season by the league’s worst team.

The Lakers and Atlanta are the only teams with losing records against the Trail Blazers, who have fallen below the other 29 teams with a 21-57 record.

The Lakers were embarrassed in Portland in January, 113-103, and last month, 99-93. They did happen to drub the Trail Blazers, 99-82, at Staples Center in February, but just the same, Jackson sent reporters searching for dictionaries when describing the importance of Friday’s game at Staples Center.

“Portland is a team that befuddled us and stymied us with their ability to win on their home court,” he said.

Jackson could only play up Portland so long before he began answering questions about the Lakers’ roll.

The Lakers are on an 8-3 run, a game ahead of eighth-place Sacramento and 2 1/2 games ahead of ninth-place Utah.

“Now is the time to peak, if we are in fact peaking,” Jackson said.

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Golden State guard Derek Fisher, who knows a thing about the Lakers and the playoffs, had a couple of interesting observations after the Lakers beat the Warriors, 111-100.

On Kobe Bryant, he was courteous and complimentary: “He’s obviously put together a tremendous season individually, and he’s helped this organization get back to a point of respectability. People are really feeling like this team can continue to improve. He deserves a lot of credit for that.”

On the Laker playoff chances: “I don’t know the team, or the makeup of their team, but with Phil and his staff, and Kobe’s experience in the playoffs, they’ll have an opportunity.”

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Bryant, averaging 35.1 points, is a shoo-in for his first scoring title. The Lakers, despite their championship banners and Hall of Famers, have had only two other scoring champions since moving from Minneapolis: Jerry West in 1969-70 (31.2 points) and Shaquille O’Neal in 1999-2000 (29.7).

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Laker statistics

Through Wednesday

*--* PLAYERS PPG RPG APG Bryant 35.1 5.3 4.6 Odom 14.9 9.2 5.4 Parker 11.5 3.3 3.7 Mihm 10.4 6.4 1.0 Cook 8.0 3.4 0.9 Brown 7.1 6.5 1.0 George 6.3 3.9 1.0 Walton 5.0 3.5 2.2 Profit 4.2 1.7 0.6 Vujacic 3.9 2.0 1.7 Jackson 2.9 1.9 0.9 Turiaf 2.0 1.8 0.4 Bynum 1.6 1.8 0.2 Wafer 1.3 0.5 0.3 Medvedenko 1.0 0.0 0.5 Green 0.9 0.9 0.3 McKie 0.3 1.3 0.5

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