Harris Unloads After Final Exhibition

End of exhibition schedule. End of honeymoon.

Both skidded to a halt for the Lakers on Friday night in Boise, Idaho, site of a 99-94 loss to the Seattle SuperSonics and a rip job from Coach Del Harris that rivaled any he has delivered when the games counted. Maybe because he wanted these to count for something too.

“We’re first place in talk, but when it comes to really concentrating and doing the little things it takes to survive in the big pool, we haven’t done it,” Harris said. “We’ve got a week to get it corrected. If everybody’s attitude is right and we work hard all the time, we’ve got the kind of team that could avoid three-game losing streaks. Heck, we’ve already got one before the season has even started.

“I’m trying to impress upon them how very different this journey is going to be. It’s hard. We’ve got to prepare ourselves. We haven’t done a good job of that in the last half of training camp.

“This is probably the poorest camp I’ve ever been involved in, in terms of progress. I haven’t seen any improvement in about 10 days. We’re facing a critical week here where we have to forget about reading the national publications and watching the basketball TV shows and get down to the business of playing together.

“It’s just a stagnation. I don’t sense an urgency on anybody’s part to excel. I sense a feeling that we’ve already been donated a spot in the playoffs.”

Harris’ steam-letting came after the Lakers, having opened the exhibition schedule 5-0, finished with three losses. Two of those were against their major competition in the West, the Houston Rockets on Tuesday in a game both teams played to win and then the SuperSonics on Friday, the latter ending with Seattle scoring 30 points in the fourth quarter without benefit of playing against scrubs and shooting 51.6% in all.

What remains before the start of the regular season, next Friday against Phoenix at the Forum, is a day off today and then what promises to be five serious days of practice. The Lakers will even be back to two-a-days on Sunday.

“We better get our ship righted this week,” Harris said, “or else we’re going to be out there with one paddle on a stormy sea.”

Byron Scott led the Lakers in scoring for the second consecutive game, getting 16 points. Shaquille O’Neal got only nine shots, but made six to finish with 13 points and six rebounds in 30 minutes.