Lakers to Play It Straight? : NBA playoffs: They figure Robinson’s production will be stellar, double-teamed or not.

It’s not a David vs. Goliath world anymore, not since David is Goliath, so the Lakers, seeing that the alternative hasn’t brought much success, may not try to fight the system.

They gave David Robinson the obligatory double-team coverage Saturday and have a 110-94 loss to show for it, Robinson either effectively going to the basket or watching his San Antonio teammates pick apart the Lakers’ sloppy defensive rotations for openings that allowed Spur guards to penetrate.

So why not concede the Admiral his MVP numbers--33 points on 14-for-23 shooting--and concentrate on snuffing out the rest of a varied attack?

That’s what the Lakers were considering Sunday, back at the drawing board.

“We haven’t decided yet,” Vlade Divac said before they practiced in preparation for Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinal series tonight at 5 (PST) in the Alamodome. “We’re going to have to talk about it tomorrow morning. But I think it could be one strategy, playing him straight up.”

The Lakers didn’t double-team Robinson every time Saturday with Divac and/or Elden Campbell and/or Sam Bowie, just enough to make it commonplace. To be successful in single coverage--in other words, to avoid being an entry in the record books--they have to limit the number of times he gets the ball on the post and take their chances from the outside on a guy who can hit the medium-range jumper.

The guards have to do their part by pressuring Spur ballhandlers so they can’t make easy passes inside.

“We have Sam, Elden and myself, and we can rotate everyone on David,” Divac said. “Even foul him. We have 15 fouls.”

And nothing to lose.

Indeed, Sunday was a day for adjustments. The Lakers contemplated their defensive scheme for changes. Spur Coach Bob Hill contemplated his and reached for the blowtorch.

“You say, ‘You still won by 16,’ ” Hill said. “Well, we did. We were able to piece together some surges of defense in the fourth quarter when we had to, but we can make it a lot easier on ourselves if we’ll commit to that earlier in the game.

“Part of that is that we won (three of four against the Lakers) during the regular season, and I think some of (the players) felt we were going to win again. And we did win again. But it wasn’t the way we wanted to win. We have to want more than that now. We just didn’t guard them. It was just a complete breakdown defensively that we have to re-establish tomorrow night.”

What made it more of a red-in-the-face moment for Hill than for the losing coach, Del Harris, was perhaps the realization that the Lakers were tired from a tough television-orchestrated playoff schedule. They shot 40.2% and were still in the game with three minutes left. In many regards, it reminded the Lakers of Game 1 of the first-round series against the Seattle SuperSonics.

Laker Notes

David Robinson, whose hard fall in the fourth quarter after the flagrant foul by Elden Campbell resulted in a sore tailbone and sore left elbow, said he felt fine after the Spurs’ practice Sunday. That left San Antonio Coach Bob Hill as the only one still smarting. “The only thing that concerned me was not the hard foul, necessarily,” Hill said. “It was the way they (the Lakers) reacted to it. There was no attempt whatsoever to see if David was OK, which leads me to believe that maybe they did that on purpose, to some degree.”

George Lynch, who suffered a mild concussion when inadvertently hit across the face by Robinson, attended the Lakers’ practice but did not take part in the light workout. Lynch’s condition is being monitored and he is expected to be available tonight.

The taxing schedule of playing an emotional game Thursday night at the Forum, flying Friday morning to San Antonio and playing a day game Saturday apparently caught up with the Lakers. They conceded as much after the Game 1 defeat.

“While we didn’t want to admit it (Friday), it would have been one of the great playoff wins of all time for our team to have come out of a win in that (Seattle) series and 36 hours later play (and win) on the home court of the team with the best record in the league,” Laker Coach Del Harris said. “(It) would have been monumental. I thought we gave a great effort.”