Harris Doesn’t Blame Booers

Laker fans, having been patient for a couple of weeks while their favorites struggled without Shaquille O’Neal and Robert Horry, booed during Friday’s 111-90 loss to the Houston Rockets, but Coach Del Harris took it in stride.

“You never like that, but on the other hand, we had a very boo-able performance,” Harris said. “You never like it, but I can’t say that I blame anybody because we were playing awfully at that particular time. That’s part of the business.

“Sports is like life. There are always things that come along that create bumps in the road. The people that do the best in sports and life are the ones that respond in the most positive way to whatever problems there are. . . .

“But you’ve got to fight human nature. Because human nature will have you give up at the first sign of pain and problems and would have you cast blame in every direction, and those are things you have to avoid in a team situation.

“We’ll survive this. We played a bad game. It’s that simple, but we’ll come back.”

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Kobe Bryant, on the advice he’d give to anyone wondering about entering the draft, who asked him what the NBA is like:

“It’s hard work,” he said. “That’s all it is. It’s playing basketball. The more you work on your game, the better you get.”

However, Bryant says it hasn’t taken the fun out of it for him.

“I’m at a point in my career where everything is new to me,” he says. “This whole season is basically new to me. Everything I go through on a road trip is something new, something else I have to learn. So right now, everything is fun.

“When I was a senior in high school, I basically had accomplished everything I want to accomplish. Right now, I’m starting from ground zero again. You have to try to build yourself back up. That makes the game a lot more fun for me.”

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Forward Corie Blount, who sprained an ankle in Friday’s game, didn’t practice Saturday and is questionable for tonight’s game against New Jersey.