Harris Is Latest to Fall on Sword

One more Laker threw himself on the sword for Tuesday’s loss at Chicago, taking much of the blame for the disaster even if Nick Van Exel had beat him to it.

“Bottom line, the coach has to have his team prepared for every situation, and we weren’t,” the Lakers’ coach, Del Harris, said Wednesday. “Hopefully, it will be a learning situation for us for the next time the situation arises.

“In the end, I’ll take responsibility for not having the guys prepared enough for this situation at this time.”

This situation being the Lakers’ lack of ability to deal with, let alone break, the Bulls’ constant full-court pressure down the stretch that sparked the comeback from a 19-point fourth-quarter deficit.

Time, though, was also a factor--the Lakers having had so little of it to practice during a nonstop first six weeks. And when the break came and they prepared Monday for just such a defense, Van Exel and Eddie Jones were the only starters healthy enough to take part.

“It made us look bad, as a coach and as a team,” Harris said. “But all in all, I think we’ve shown we are able to go against pressure defenses as shown the last three years against Seattle, which consistently has a full-pressure defense. But [Tuesday] night was just not our night.”