So Much for All-Star Cheer

The Laker constellation got smacked into one of those rough-neighborhood solar systems Wednesday, finding themselves cornered by the New Jersey Nets, just when everyone had become convinced it should be the other way around. The Lakers themselves, for one.

“New Jersey came in here like a young team that wanted to beat a team of all-stars,” Coach Del Harris said.

So the Nets did, building a big second-quarter lead and then rolling to a 106-95 victory before 15,643 at the Great Western Forum as Keith Van Horn had a game-high 30 points to ruin the 27-point, 19-rebound, six-blocked shot performance by Shaquille O’Neal. But the Lakers still had three more all-stars.

To think the game might not have been the most significant loss of the night. A strained abdominal muscle emerged anew, but this time striking Robert Horry, who first noticed the problem Monday at practice, but didn’t mention it to anyone until halftime Wednesday when it was bothering him again. He is day-to-day, but the Lakers don’t need any reminders about what that means with that injury.

Nick Van Exel is also day-to-day, as if he wasn’t already because of the sore knee. But this time, it’s because of a strained left hip flexor that put him out in the fourth quarter in obvious pain, after making one of nine shots.

Van Exel was the only Laker all-star to truly suffer. O’Neal had a big night, Kobe Bryant also did with 26 points, and Eddie Jones got 17 points, seven assists and three steals. As if the Nets were impressed.

“We came in here and they supposedly got four all-stars,” New Jersey’s Kendall Gill said. “Legitimately, they got one.”

He meant O’Neal.

Or as Sam Cassell said after getting 13 points and 11 assists: “Do all-stars win games? No. Scrubs do. And we’re scrubs.”

That emotional high in the first outing since the flurry of positive all-star news lasted, oh, about nine minutes. Then came the reality check, the Nets going on a 14-5 run, and taking a 57-39 lead late in the second quarter. The Lakers getting booed.

There went your honeymoon, all-stars.

“The expectations just went up tremendously,” Van Exel said of the pressures added now that the Lakers are the first team since 1983 to place four all-stars. “But I think we’re ready for it.”

He meant in general, not Wednesday in particular. Which was good, because the Lakers weren’t ready for anything, looking emotionless and sloppy in the opening half despite having had the previous three days off and getting badly outplayed by a team on the second night of a back-to-back.

Of course, no one had to tell the Lakers that the all-star grand slam turned the already grand expectations into a glass ceiling--”In a way it does,” Bryant said. He also said he welcomed that new challenge.

The Lakers loved the new standards. Most did, at least. The coach, he wasn’t so sure they had changed much in the first place.

“I don’t see how you raise it past everyone thinking you should win the championship and win every game,” Harris said. “I don’t know what you can do beyond that.”

Immediately lower the expectations?

The Lakers accomplished that much, at least, in the early going, putting themselves in position to come back from an 18-point deficit by shooting 36% in the first half and continuing the three-point drought that started Saturday at Seattle by missing all five tries before intermission. The all-star backcourt, Jones and Van Exel, were a combined three of 15 from the field for six points--over the same stretch that Net guard Kerry Kittles had 16 points.

And when Kittles cooled in the third period, Van Horn took over, a warmup for his appearance in the rookie all-star game. Or at least one of the many-the Diamond Bar High product came in leading all first-year players in scoring and minutes and fourth in rebounding. His big contribution in the first game as a pro at the Forum was the 14 points in the quarter, helping the Nets first push the lead to 23 with 8:07 left and then keeping it at a comfortable 89-72 heading into the fourth.

Even losing its one full-fledged all-star couldn’t slow New Jersey. Jayson Williams was ejected after getting two technicals in the third period, exiting with 9:24 remaining after managing only eight points and four boards in 14 minutes, a very low contribution from the league’s No. 2 rebounder.