It’s Overtime for Scouting

This pennant race thing can sure be exhausting. And the players might get tired too.

With only three games left in the regular season, Chris Bodaken, the Lakers’ scout and video coordinator, is still up to his fast-forward button in VCRs and computers, forced to have reports and video ready on all potential first-round opponents by the weekend so the coaches can start the dissection on Sunday afternoon’s plane ride back from the finale in Portland. So he analyzes the Trail Blazers. And the Phoenix Suns. And the Minnesota Timberwolves.

And he doesn’t sleep.

“There have been so many all-nighters,” Bodaken said.

He has seen all three possible opponents in person twice since April 4. Between live and taped games he has seen the Timberwolves 40 or 50 times in the last couple weeks. Now that he’s back in the office to finish countless individual and team breakdowns on each of the three, another scout, Brad Ceisler, will watch them again in person and file reports.

The only certainties in the Western Conference are that the Utah Jazz will finish No. 1 and play the No. 8 Clippers, and that the Trail Blazers will get No. 5. Beyond that, half a game separates the Seattle SuperSonics, Lakers and Houston Rockets for Nos. 2, 3 and 4, while the Suns and Timberwolves are in a similar battle for Nos. 6 and 7.

So Bodaken waits. Waits and works, even though two-thirds may go to waste.

“We’re keeping the tape company happy,” he said. “Let’s put it that way.”

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The SuperSonics are in emotional distress. The Lakers know this. They know this because they’ve been there.

“To me, it’s like Seattle looks like us last year at this time,” Nick Van Exel said. “Like they’re in disarray with one another and trying to hide the fact that there’s a problem going on and trying to play through it.”

The SuperSonics lead the Pacific Division, but the Lakers have the tiebreaker and the knowledge that if they close the regular season with victories over the Sacramento Kings, Clippers and Trail Blazers they will earn the title. Seattle, meanwhile, finishes with the Denver Nuggets tonight and the Clippers on Saturday.

The Rockets, battling for third place in the West because second goes to the Pacific winner, play the Dallas Mavericks on Friday and the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.

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Of the four teams that will be repeat 50-game winners from last season, only the Lakers and Utah Jazz will also be improving on their 1995-96 marks. The Chicago Bulls and SuperSonics won’t.