L.A. Confidential Memo: West Won’t Make a Deal

Just in time for Oscar, the Laker situation has become as clear as the block letters on a movie marquee near you.

No, silly, not “Titanic.”

If you’d turn the radio down for one stupid second, you might remember the Lakers have the second-best record in the NBA.

This is something a tad less hair-raising.

Call it, “As Good As It Gets.”

On Friday, Jerry West confirmed as much.

“I have no interest in making a trade,” the Laker vice president said. “Our owner is very satisfied with this team. I’m satisfied with this team.”

There it is. What some have wanted, but many have feared.

No power forward coming.

No help for a hurting Shaquille O’Neal.

Kobe Bryant and Eddie Jones spend the rest of the season fighting for minutes, shots . . . everything but rebounds.

The league’s most entertaining and exasperating team forced to stay together to figure things out.

As Del Harris’ job stability lessens, his challenge increases.

“I’m not going to make a lateral move,” West said. “I really think our best basketball is ahead of us.”

This could work.

O’Neal and Nick Van Exel could heal, Rick Fox could get more comfortable, everybody could grow up, and by April they could be a championship-type team.

“You can’t lose sight of the fact that we’re so young,” West said. “Teams have to grow together.”

This could also fail, and badly.

What if they can’t mature in three months? It’s not that easy for this group, or they would have done it long before now.

“We better mature by the end of the year,” O’Neal said. “If not, we’ll be going home early.”

But what if they don’t?

What if they never will?

What if Harris takes a fall for a team that even Jimmy Naismith couldn’t turn into champions?

What if a win against Miami, losses against Philadelphia and Boston, a win against Utah . . . what if this really is as good as it gets?

Which brings us to today at the Forum. The Chicago Bulls will be there, they and their famous weakness detectors.

“Certain teams tell you where you’re at,” Fox said. “Today, we’ll see where we’re at.”

We might not want to look.

The Bulls play smart. The Lakers play smart-alecky.

The Bulls play defense. The Lakers play defense sometimes.

The Bulls move the ball. The Lakers shoot the ball.

I will not make a prediction. Tim Hardaway made a prediction, and look where it got him.

The Lakers, kids that they are, react to things such as predictions, slights, muffled criticism in obscure tomes. This is good for about three wins a year.

What concerns club officials is how they conduct themselves when the only motivation for winning is, well, winning.

“If there has been any disappointment so far, it has been in, ‘How hard do we play?’ ” West said. “Some nights, we just don’t seem to be there.”

The Lakers were there Friday in the first half against the Minnesota Timberwolves, running up a 17-point lead.

Then they weren’t, blowing that lead by the end of the third quarter.

Typical of the game, of the week, of the season, was a sequence midway through the second quarter.

Jones and Fox were beaten by Cherokee Parks--yeah, him--for a rebound that Parks laid in the basket.

But within five seconds Bryant was at the other end of the court, grabbing an alley-oop pass by Derek Fisher, dunking behind his back.

Do you think the fans booed the lost rebound or cheered the dunk? Which play do you think the Lakers noticed more?

But which play, if performed properly, will win championships?

“With us it’s like, you can be so talented, you don’t rely on the little things,” Fox said. “You think your athletic ability can do it all. You think you can always get away with it.”

Today, the Lakers can’t get away with it.

Today the Lakers will give this town a hint, is this as really as good as it gets?

If they are blown out, it could be a long winter. If they play to their capabilities, there is a glimmer of championship hope.

The only thing certain is, from now until June, they will have to win with what they have.

West risked much in building this team and should be congratulated.

But is he risking more in not figuring out a way to make it a little better?

Whatever, the Lakers who take the floor today are a little like that cherry-red truck that O’Neal drove away from the Forum Friday night.

The color was sparkling, so shiny you could see your reflection in the hood.

But then O’Neal turned up the stereo so loud that the thumping noise startled bystanders and set off a nearby car alarm. The beautiful thing was just awful.