Lakers Too Heavy for Van Exel : NBA playoffs: Guard scores 29 points, but it’s not enough as L.A. loses to Seattle, 96-71, the lowest point total in franchise playoff history.

The Lakers’ absence from the playoffs reached one year and a game on Thursday.

Nick Van Exel showed at the Tacoma Dome for the playoff opener and was joined by . . . nobody! No Cedric Ceballos. No Anthony Peeler or Eddie Jones, the starting shooting guards by committee. So no dice.

The only thing that looked familiar to the Lakers was the outcome, hardly the news a team that finished the regular season 2-8 was looking for. Now it’s the way they started the first round too, having been dominated in the fourth quarter en route to a 96-71 rout by the Seattle SuperSonics before 14,073.

Left to go it alone with a game-high 29 points, Van Exel found that his previous monster performances against Seattle don’t carry into the postseason without a supporting cast. His teammates combined for 42 points in what became the worst offensive output in Laker playoff history, breaking the record of 72 set April 9, 1972.

The next-closest Laker? Vlade Divac had 11 points. Ceballos, their leading scorer during the regular season with a 21.7 average, had all of two points on one-of-10 shooting, while counterpart Detlef Schrempf got 20.

“I didn’t think we played smart basketball,” Coach Del Harris said after his team shot just 35.4% and was outscored in the fourth quarter, 28-14. “Offensively, we threw the ball to dead spots. We let them (the SuperSonics) root us out of the post position, and we threw the ball into the post anyway. And then we tried to make difficult passes out of the post instead of the easy pass. Again, I thought our offensive execution was pretty poor.”

Added Ceballos: “Some days you shoot the ball great, some days you shoot the ball medium and some days you shoot it terrible. Today was a terrible shooting day. It’s definitely a situation where I’m not going to stop shooting or stop looking for my shot or stop being as aggressive as possible. I understand you’ve just got to knock ‘em down.”

If the ending has become all too common for the Lakers, the beginning definitely provided a sudden change: Peeler in place of Jones as the starting shooting guard as Harris was more concerned about his team’s play the previous three weeks than whether a shake-up at this time is risky. In fact, Harris also planned to go with Sam Bowie over Elden Campbell at power forward, but Bowie came down with flu and instead remained a reserve.

“I think our situation called for some change,” Harris said.

It certainly called for something.

So out went Jones, who averaged 12.8 points and shot 44.3% in the 10 games since returning to the starting lineup after a lengthy absence because of a sprained shoulder. Peeler was at 10.5 and 37% in the same span, but Harris was quick to recall his 17.3 points in 24 consecutive starts, most in place of Jones. The possibility of getting that player back was a great enough lure.

“AP played so well as a starter,” Harris said. “I felt like we had given Eddie enough time to reclaim his spot. I just felt that since AP wasn’t doing quite as well off the bench as I had hoped, let’s get him back in there where he can be an asset. And maybe Eddie can get us some life off the bench.

“I don’t think he (Jones) has quite gotten back into his rhythm since he was hurt. It’s just a matter of getting the most out of both of them.”

But it’s not a risky move?

“Not really,” Harris said. “Not when you’ve won two out of 10.”

With the Lakers scrounging for offense, Peeler managed just one shot, a miss, in the first 7:02 before being replaced and finished four for 11 with five fouls in 25 minutes. Jones, meanwhile, went one of six in 27 minutes in his new role.

“I didn’t have a reaction,” Jones said. “I’ll sacrifice whatever for the team. If I’m better off the bench, I’ll be better off the bench.”

Come Saturday afternoon, almost all the Lakers need to be better.

As Divac said when asked what they have to do in Game 2: “We have to do everything we didn’t do tonight.”