Van Exel Steal Stats Go Up

All-star, huh?

Laker Nick Van Exel dragged his sore body across the country Thursday and arrived a standout--now that he officially will play Sunday at Madison Square Garden--and will leave a statistic. It won’t look good next to his assist-to-turnover ratio, either.

“I was excited yesterday,” Van Exel said of hitting town. “Except when somebody stole my bag from under my nose at the airport.”

And not the one in Los Angeles.

“Here, of course,” he said.

Someone else’s steal will be more costly than irritating to Van Exel. The carry-on bag included a CD player, speakers, 40 discs, headphones, jewelry, his computer and a pager, among other things.

Welcome to New York.

“No doubt,” he said.

*

Making no promises but buying into the importance of the moment for his Pacific Division rivals, West Coach George Karl said he will try to play the four Laker representatives together Sunday.

“I can’t guarantee it, but I want to do it,” Karl said. “I don’t think it will be for an extended time. But I will try.”

He apparently holds no sinister plot of running Van Exel, or the other Lakers, into the ground with big minutes in hopes of helping his own Seattle SuperSonics.

“I don’t think the intensity of an All-Star game fatigues anybody,” Karl said. “Except [Charles] Barkley, who--well, I better not say that.”