Lakers Missing Some Big Pieces, so No One Should Be That Puzzled

I would bet that when Del Harris was soaking up sun rays in Honolulu, at the Laker training camp, with visions of Shaq Attaqs dancing in his silvery head, he did not picture a Laker starting front line of Corie Blount, Jerome Kersey and Sean Rooks.

Even in his worst daydreams, the coach could not have suspected in Hawaii that--eight dates from the end of the NBA season--his mighty Forum forward wall of Elden Campbell, Cedric Ceballos and, of course, Shaquille O’Neal, would not even be in uniform.

How could Harris have known then that, come April, he not only would start a Blount-Kersey-Rooks front line, but that of his four main reserves, two (Robert Horry and George McCloud) were not even in the Lakers’ camp, while the other two (Derek Fisher and Kobe Bryant) were raw rookies, one of whom was in his teens?

Yet this is the Laker team I witnessed in its most recent appearance, Friday night at home against the lowly San Antonio Spurs.

The home team lost, by 11 points.

It lost to a team with a record of 18-54.

Therefore, I could understand why Harris was not exactly the happiest man in Inglewood afterward, when he said, “It was a disappointing performance, and all the guys feel bad about it.”

As I stood there, however, watching their faces, feeling kind of sorry for Del and all the guys, a funny thought occurred to me.

This team shouldn’t be feeling bad.

This team should feel great.

I can hardly believe that the Lakers took a record of 50-23 into Friday’s game, considering everything that has happened to them. What a super job these guys have done. They lose Shaq. They trade Ceballos. They lose Horry, the guy they got for Ceballos. They lose Campbell, the guy who took Shaq’s spot. They lose Travis Knight, the guy who took Campbell’s spot.

One more guy goes down, Jerry West will have to activate Kurt Rambis.

Either that, or call Wilt.

And yet, had they won Friday night, the Lakers would have been in first place.

Astounding.

They actually felt lousy about losing this one lousy game. All-star guard Eddie Jones lamented, “We had a chance to become the best team in the Pacific [Division] tonight, but we didn’t. We fell back. It’s too bad.”

Hang in there, Eddie.

I know you and Nick Van Exel don’t always recognize your starting forwards and center from one night to the next. I wouldn’t blame you if you play Dallas tonight and pass the ball to A.C. Green by mistake.

But things could be worse.

For example, I sensed tension last week when Harris was doing his Kevin Loughery impersonation, getting technical fouls as fast as he knew how, while West was busy giving his 10,000th “irresponsible media” lecture, simply because some nutball speculated that Harris was out and Rick Pitino was in, soon as the season was over. Yeah, right. And if that doesn’t happen, look out for Laker Coach Lute Olson!

If any of Harris’ players believe that the coach should deliberately draw some Ts once in a while to fire up the team, they are nuttier than most of the media. All technicals do is cost you a point or two, in a sport where games are often lost by a point or two.

Winning is tough enough, even against a San Antonio.

“Everybody gets hung up on records,” Harris said. “ ‘You should beat this team, you should beat that team.’ That’s faulty thinking. There are no bad teams. There are only teams with bad records.”

The Lakers had to use Rooks at center for 39 minutes against San Antonio. No one on either side played more.

Rooks said, “I’m glad for the opportunity to play a little more. It would be nicer if we got the win.”

Unfortunately, the Spurs won, thanks mainly to a big night off the bench by 2,000-year-old Dominique Wilkins.

No bad teams await the Lakers in the playoffs.

They now might open against Portland or Phoenix--two of the NBA’s hottest teams--after which they would have to overcome Seattle, Utah and Chicago, with no home-court advantage.

Still, the Lakers shouldn’t feel bad.

Nobody thought the University of Arizona could overcome the top three teams, either.