Given His Chance, Rooks Impresses

With the disappointment over the loss of Shaquille O’Neal comes another opportunity for Sean Rooks, the third-string center who had played only 17 minutes in the five games before Sunday but now figures to have a much bigger role.

“No doubt,” Laker Coach Del Harris said. “We’re counting on him, and he has kept himself ready to go. Even though he hasn’t gotten a lot of minutes, he has gotten some minutes most every game and kept himself sharp.”

The situation is similar to last season, when O’Neal went down because of a knee injury and Rooks, having fallen out of the rotation, was likewise unexpectedly called upon. He responded with showings that carried through to the end of the regular season, even after O’Neal returned. And when O’Neal and Elden Campbell missed this season’s opener against the Utah Jazz, Rooks contributed 12 points, seven rebounds and two blocks.

“You just want to be out there contributing,” Rooks said. “I know I’m contributing to the team when I do play and in practices, but the guys look like they’re having so much fun out there. You just want to be part of it.”

That chance is coming now. Sunday, he played 31 minutes and contributed 15 points, eight rebounds and three blocks in the 119-102 victory over the Clippers.

Sunday’s game was hardly the first time Brent Barry of the Clippers had played against brother Jon Barry, now with the Lakers. But it still had its moments.

“The strangest part was really before the game,” Jon Barry said. “[Assistant coach] Kurt Rambis was going through the scouting report and he talks about my brother. Then he turns to me like, ‘Is that right?’ ”

There were bigger concerns, though.

“I wanted to prove myself because these guys in here had been riding me,” Jon said of his teammates. “Shaq, he loves Brent. ‘Do you guys have the same mother’--that was Elden.”

Harris, after his team became one of only nine to start 11-0 and he became one of only 19 coaches with 500 victories:

“I can always accept better. Like 12-0.”