THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : It’s Starting to Be Jerry’s West Again

Looking at the race in the West, we find four teams jockeying for the last two playoff spots and, just as I suspected, the Lakers aren’t one of them.

Instead, they’re No. 4 in the conference, on the heels of the elite teams: Phoenix, Houston and Seattle.

Nor are the Lakers on that improbable 50-victory pace, either.

Now they’re on a 56-victory pace.

What’s going on around here?

How did a crumbling dynasty fall out of the playoffs for one year, make a single lottery appearance--at No. 10--and turn itself into an up-and-coming team with no starter older than 26?

“It’s an incredible season for them,” Orlando Magic player personnel director John Gabriel says.

“They’re making as much noise as anybody out there. You expect the Houstons and Seattles to be good. Dallas had to start winning with all their draft picks. Jerry West has done it with guys who aren’t supposed to be doing it.”

You can imagine how delighted the rest of the West is to see the Lakers back on their feet too.

Remember the season Magic Johnson left and Warrior Coach Don Nelson urged the Mavericks not to trade Derek Harper here?

Imagine all the gnashing of teeth now on the general managers’ network: “Those unprintables were supposed to be out of the way the rest of the century! We’ve got old teams out there like the Blazers that haven’t even started rebuilding, and these pains in the rear have already rebuilt? Why couldn’t they be like the Celtics? Why couldn’t they be like the Pistons?”

Here’s what happened:

DEL HARRIS

Among insiders, the erudite Harris, author of three basketball books, had a reputation as a coaches’ coach but found himself being passed over in an era when the sizzle was as important as the steak.

When Larry Brown left and the Clipper job came open, Harris sent in daily faxes, each noting different accomplishments. The Clippers hired Bob Weiss.

West, a long-time Nelson admirer (So what if Nellie plotted against him? All’s fair in love, war and inter-division play.) got one prodigy, Mike Dunleavy, from that old Milwaukee network. When Dunleavy went back to Wisconsin, West might have hired Harris but believed he owed Randy Pfund a shot.

Two years later, needing a coach and unable to attract a sizzle guy like Rick Pitino, West did hire Harris.

Harris, who had played slow (Milwaukee) and slower (Houston), adjusted his defensive techniques for the up-tempo game Jerry Buss requires, and here they are.

“I’ve read all his books, just to show you what kind of dreary life I’m living,” says Sacramento personnel director Jerry Reynolds, who has known Harris since both were small-college coaches in Indiana.

“He’s amazing. He’ll wear you out sometimes, but, to my mind, he understands the game of basketball probably better than any person on this planet.”

VLADE DIVAC

The Lakers, NBA finalists in 1989, were drafting next-to-last in the first round when 25 teams passed on the 22-year-old Serb and delivered him to West, gift-wrapped as it were.

Despite Divac’s obvious gifts, instant popularity and commercial potential, training the young Vlade in the hard-nosed American Way was no easy task.

Coach Pat Riley, who had little patience for rookie mistakes, gritted his teeth through one season of behind-the-back passes.

Magic Johnson was still snarling “Come here !” at Divac at the end of their two seasons together.

In Divac’s fourth season, he almost went to Milwaukee in a three-way deal for Jimmy Jackson, shot down only when Jackson refused to sign a contract with the Lakers.

Surprise, in his fifth season, Divac smoothed out the valleys in his intensity and became a player. The guy who once ducked out of the way when some moose charged down the lane at him is No. 5 in blocked shots, ahead of Alonzo Mourning, Shaquille O’Neal and Patrick Ewing.

CEDRIC CEBALLOS

Perhaps more embarrassed than he’ll admit at donating a potential all-star to the cause, Paul Westphal says the Suns traded Ceballos to the Lakers because all the other teams were too “stupid” to make a bid.

In Ceballos’ case, the stupidity was widely held and career-long.

“Now a lot of people would say he’s really good,” Reynolds says. “Obviously, if they’d thought so, they’d have been trying harder to get him. They’d have tried harder to draft him. I think he’s been underrated like that right along.

“I remember watching him score big against Nevada Las Vegas in college with a bunch of scouts, and we’re all about equally dumb: ‘Well, yeah, he scored a lot of points but blah, blah, blah. Doesn’t have a pro body, can’t shoot the outside shot.’ This, that and the other.”

The GMs missed on Ceballos, even after he averaged 19 points last season and 32 in a two-week span when Charles Barkley was out.

He was easy to miss. Ceballos is one of those players who breaks the mold.

As a rebounder, pound for pound, only Dennis Rodman is better. Ceballos, who should be too small to play forward, is No. 10 in the league in offensive rebounds.

He wasn’t supposed to be able to shoot, either, but he learned in a hurry. After going two for 33 on three-pointers in four seasons at Phoenix, he now takes two a game and makes a respectable 37%.

Look at it this way: The Lakers were going to have to steal a couple of stars to win.

This looks like one of them.

NICK VAN EXEL

Everyone has heard how the Little Dude With the Big ‘Tude blew himself out of the first round in the spring of ’93 with a string of missed appointments, but here’s another story.

Here to try out for the Clippers, Van Exel was introduced to Elgin Baylor.

Making conversation, Baylor asked Van Exel what he thought of Cincinnati Coach Bob Huggins, whom the pros regard as a comer.

Not much, said Van Exel, forcefully and colorfully savaging his old mentor.

Baylor, taken aback, asked what he thinks about Cincinnati teammate Corie Blount, another draft prospect.

Not much, said Van Exel, forcefully and colorfully savaging his old buddy.

Thus it was not a total surprise that 36 picks came and went and Van Exel was still available to the Lakers midway through the second round.

No one was prepared for what came next. Hard-nosed, cat-quick, fearless, a better shooter than anyone thought and very much the boss, he is now generally considered by NBA scouts as one of the top 10 point guards. Put down another one for West.

He gets another plus for drafting the promising Eddie Jones, 10th pick last spring.

West even gets a plus for Elden Campbell, No. 27 in 1990, who has learned to make a post move without falling down, for which Bill Bertka, who has long worked with Campbell, should be nominated for coach of the year.

The Lakers haven’t shocked the world yet--that will have to wait until season’s end, instead of the one-third mark--but they certainly have surprised it.

FACES AND FIGURES

San Francisco Bay Blues (cont.): Latrell Sprewell, still in the dumps with all his friends traded, skipped another practice and was finally given something more than a slap on the wrist: a one-game suspension. Sprewell didn’t call, and worried Warrior executives broadcast an appeal on the radio. “We haven’t heard from him and we’re obviously concerned about his well being at this point,” assistant coach Donn Nelson said. “We want to know if he’s healthy. Spree, if you’re out there, please give us a call.” Sprewell turned up, refused to explain and sat out the home loss to the lowly Bucks, dropping the Warrior record to 3-18 since the day they traded Chris Webber. . . . Jason Kidd, in two legal scrapes since leaving California, made it three when a Dallas man told police Kidd punched him in the face after the man asked Kidd to pose for a picture. Kidd said he didn’t punch the man but acknowledged they argued. Said Kidd: “I just got fed up with them taking pictures and I just went off, which I shouldn’t have done . . . “ Said Kidd’s agent, Aaron Goodwin: “Jason’s problem is with being a celebrity. He’s got to learn to live with it. He can’t move without someone wanting a piece of him. That’s what he can’t handle.”

Repeat after me, guys, denial, anger, acceptance: Chicago Bull Coach Phil Jackson, trying to deal with a home loss to the Clippers, enlisted wife June, a social worker specializing in grief counseling. Said Jackson: “My wife gave me some information on this. It’s the dread of losing to the worst team in the league that got us. Everyone worried about it and then they got so worried after Scottie (Pippen) got ejected that we fulfilled our own worst thoughts.” . . . Who you calling worst team in the league?: Since Dec. 6, the Clippers are 5-8. The Bulls are only 8-6. . . . Always nice to know the alumni are cheering for you: Dominique Wilkins says the Clippers might yet match the 76ers’ 9-73 mark. Said ‘Nique: “They still might get the record, the big one. I really don’t want to pick on them too much. I’ve still got some friends on that team. But with the way things are with the owner and everything, I don’t think they can ever get it together.”

Wilt Chamberlain, doing a card show signing with Bill Russell in Boston, says their decades-long feud is over. “Age has mellowed everything,” Wilt said. “When you get older, emotions either intensify or they mellow and I’ve mellowed. People have always made a big deal about the two of us being big rivals but we’re back to being very, very close.” . . . Minny-tempest J.R. Rider averaged 26 points for six games after calling a news conference to rebut Coach Bill Blair, announcing, “I’m living to shut peoples’ mouths”--then blew off a shoot-around and was suspended for one game. . . . Facing jail time if he didn’t complete the community service prescribed by a judge after Rider was found guilty of kicking a woman, he crammed the final 28 hours into four days of work at a detox center.

Pat Riley, who has never finished in second place in 12 seasons as a coach, all but conceded the Atlantic Division to runaway leader Orlando. “Orlando’s a special team and everybody knows that,” he said. “They’re very talented, very hungry, they added a couple of parts that have brought everything together and their young players are improving. I’m not giving away anything, but I think you have to look at the fact that they’re seven games ahead of us. The playoffs are a different story. I think this team is one that’s going to have to be contended with.” . . . The Knicks hope to have Charles Oakley, who underwent surgery on his dislocated toe, back by March. Patrick Ewing, who started slowly after arthroscopic knee surgery, bounced back, averaging 25 points as the Knicks won four in a row. That leaves the puzzle of John Starks (17 for 46 in the four games) for Riley to solve. . . . Will the circle be unbroken: Riley, who blasted Greg Kite when the Celtic enforcer was pounding Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, after signing Kite: “That is forgotten. He is now and forever a Knick. Those words and adjectives I used then probably would describe a Knick today.”