Better Starts Are the Latest Priority

Tipoff tonight for the Lakers and Golden State Warriors is 7:30 at the Forum.

ETA for the Lakers is about 8:40.

“Everybody is aware that we’re having very slow starts,” Jerome Kersey said. “If you’re not, you’re an idiot.”

A poor first half has become as regular as it is confounding for the Lakers, ahead at halftime only once in the last five games, and that was against the Dallas Mavericks. By a point.

The average score in those five games has been 52.2-47.6. That included allowing 55 points in the last game to New Jersey, a team that came in averaging only 96.8. Two nights before that, the Houston Rockets had built a 62-33 advantage by halftime.

“It’s been hurting us to get off to such slow starts,” Elden Campbell said. “We have to concentrate on not getting behind so early. It makes it tough throughout the whole game when you’ve got to keep struggling to try and get back into it.”

Added Coach Del Harris, searching for a solution: “We can’t feel sorry for ourselves and think we’ve got a couple guys out. You have got to respond a little differently.”

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The Laker frontcourt should be back at full strength tonight, relatively speaking.

Corie Blount returned to practice Tuesday after missing one game and two practices because of a sprained ankle. Travis Knight was kept out of workouts Monday and Tuesday because medication taken to test his sight after an inadvertent elbow from Eric Montross of the Nets prompted some minor vision problems, but he should be ready to face the Warriors. Those tests proved negative, although Knight will probably wear protective goggles for a while.

But there are determinations on his status to come from other fronts. The brief layoff arrived with Knight already struggling, so Harris could make a change at power forward tonight, with Blount the likely beneficiary if a move is made. Blount has also missed time recently, but he looked good in Tuesday’s practice.