Lakers Show Some Punch

The first one may have been a surprise, the smack Shaquille O’Neal delivered to Greg Ostertag at the shoot-around earlier in the day. But the second, the series of hard lefts, the Utah Jazz saw those coming and still couldn’t do anything about it.

Nick Van Exel, the southpaw known for his shadow-boxing routines and games like this, connected on six three-point baskets to lead the Lakers back from a 16-point second-quarter deficit Friday night, all the way back to a 104-87 victory before 16,234 at the Forum in the season opener.

Playing without starters O’Neal and Elden Campbell, and relying heavily on Corie Blount and Sean Rooks in their place, the Lakers recovered from a horrible beginning.

Ostertag never did, going one for 11 from the field and spending most of the second half on the bench.

The six three-point baskets, in eight tries and only 30 minutes, were two short of Van Exel’s club record, accomplished twice last season. He finished with 22 points, the game high until Kobe Bryant added on to the big Laker lead and his own highlight reel down the stretch en route to 23.

“I was feeling kind of good,” Van Exel said. “Plus, we needed a spark.”

For several reasons. O’Neal was out, as expected, but so was Campbell, a surprise. From that news about 20 minutes before tipoff, the Lakers proceeded to shoot 34.1% the first half, staying close thanks to Van Exel and their defense that limited the Jazz to 32.7% in the same time. The Lakers finished 42.3%, respectable considering the start, but Utah, even with Karl Malone in the lineup, got to only 35.7%.

The symmetry of opening against the Jazz, the team that ended their season last spring, was not lost on the Lakers, who liked the coincidence of the schedule. Even if this wasn’t really the Jazz and the Lakers.

O’Neal was out because of the strained abdominal muscle, and perhaps on his way out for longer because of the afternoon scuffle with Ostertag that has O’Neal facing the possibility of a fine and suspension to be served when sound. Any announcement probably would come Monday.

John Stockton was out because of surgery on his left knee--the first game he has missed after 609 consecutive appearances, the third-longest active streak in the league and eighth-longest all-time.

Even Campbell, expected to start in place of O’Neal at center, was out because of neck spasms. That moved Sean Rooks into the opening lineup.

Malone was in, not surprisingly, even though a tendon injury to the middle finger of his right hand, an injury suffered in practice Thursday, officially made him a game-time decision. A miss would have meant the end to his run of 467 consecutive appearances, the fourth-longest active.

“As you know,” Laker Coach Del Harris said, “there’s no chance that’s going to happen.”

Not even if it took a strange warmup to test the taped finger--Stockton, sitting on the trainer’s table four days after undergoing surgery to remove loose cartilage, firing chest passes about 10 feet across the visitor’s locker room for Malone to catch solely with the right hand.

Malone was so bothered by the problem that he only made four of his first six shots, hitting from the perimeter and inside, as the Jazz built a 12-point lead in the first quarter.

Malone finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds.

After getting booed, trailing by as many as 16 points about five minutes earlier, and playing without their two best low-post offensive threats, the Lakers rode Van Exel and Bryant to recovery, using a 14-2 run in the final 2:53 to trail only 45-43 heading into intermission.

“Nick really gave us a tremendous spark in that second quarter,” Harris said. “He kind of brought us back with the shooting. After he did that, he and [Derek] Fisher handled the ball and only took what they had to take.”

Van Exel made two three-pointers in that second-quarter rally, Rick Fox had another and Bryant a three-point play, making the point guard four of five from behind the newly lengthened arc in the first half. When he added two more early in the third quarter, the Lakers took the lead.

That Van Exel would have a big offensive game was by no means unusual. The only thing that made it more significant than the opponent and the circumstances was that he shot only 23.5% on three-pointers in six exhibition games. He was 34.5% overall.

The 23 points by Bryant, thanks mostly to his making 13 of 14 free throws, was a career high.

*

Opening Night

* BULLS LOSE

Pitino’s Celtics rally from 20-point deficit.

* HISTORIC

Fans boo Violet Palmer like any other referee.

* HE’S BACK

Barkley has bodyguards instead of retiring.

* COVERAGE C6