Winning Makes It All Better for Lakers

Happily ever afters aren’t decided until June in this fairy tale, grim as it sometimes may be, so the Lakers for now will have to settle for a real-life statement built on a temporary foundation.

So far, so good.

Three games since reports surfaced about their coach needing to be more concerned with moving vans than moving screens have resulted in three wins, most recently the 96-89 decision over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday afternoon before 17,505 at the Great Western Forum. As if the distractions have helped.

It’s all enough to make a Laker wonder why they didn’t throw Del Harris on the skillet sooner.

“Pretty good track so far,” Rick Fox said. “Three-and-oh after it comes out. We’re playing pretty well.”

Begging the question of whether the reports that were never accurate to begin with may become something of a rallying point for a team that too often appeared directionless. The equally important point is that players are not rallying behind Harris, a man they like but are hardly in a rush to prop up during a tough time, so much as behind the notion of making a run at the Seattle SuperSonics.

This suggests the timing--coach is in trouble, let’s save his job!--is nothing more than coincidence. Coach was in trouble and they may have saved his job, for a firing was not imminent but very possible had the slump continued, but the motives weren’t quite so Richie Cunningham.

But it’s tough not to at least consider that the reports could be a spark in the latest resurgence. The Lakers know this because they have been doing some of the considering.

Either that or players got the message from Jerry West that they couldn’t get Harris fired and decided to make the best of it.

“If anybody in here had thoughts that something may happen, you win some games and it changes the focus back to what is happening on the court, not what is happening off the court,” Fox said.

“I think in a lot of ways it forced us to come together even more . . . It brought us closer together. It made us focus a little more.

“El Nino effected everybody this winter. It came in here and blew in some coaching rumors. But, yeah, I think we’ve survived having a coaching change in the middle of the season.”

Of course, the Lakers have spoken off their resurgence before, only to find it a false re-start--they had lost five of seven, built a three-game winning streak on the road and supposedly waved goodbye to troubled times, then scored 89 and 86 points in losing the next two. So, to their credit, they will wait a little longer before declaring the SuperSonics in immediate danger, knowing that time may come but that it’s all talk at this stage.

Still, the circumstances are far more impressive this time. The first two victories, after the disappointment of the 3-3 trip, came against the Pacers and Spurs, teams that today have a combined winning percentage of .689. Sunday, in moving 24 games above .500 for the first time, the Lakers built a 12-point lead early in the fourth quarter and relied heavily on Fox to keep Grant Hill in check for the first three periods.

Only by making four of five shots and scoring nine points in the final 10 minutes did Hill salvage a good showing of 19 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. But his fourth-quarter drive wasn’t enough to generate anything more than a scare.

Or at least a couple of them. The Pistons had closed to within 77-75 with 6:49 remaining after trailing by double digits most of the early part of the period, only to fall back again, at 87-77 about two minutes later. The next charge got them as close as 91-86 with 1:40 left, but they were held scoreless the rest of the way while Shaquille O’Neal got an emphatic dunk and Derek Fisher made one free throw for the final margin.

O’Neal scored 20 of his game-high 32 points in the second half, after the pain in his left big toe, the result of an in-grown nail, flared at intermission. Someone had stepped on it earlier in the game, returning what he hoped would be a bothersome injury by now into more agony.

That must be why he only played 21 of the 24 minutes the rest of the way, made 12 of 19 shots and grabbed 13 rebounds.

“Adrenaline, I guess,” O’Neal said. “The crowd.”

The 320 pounds.

“He totally dominated the second half,” Harris said. “He was fantastic in the paint.”

A pain in the paint, and in pain. Just not as much as the Pistons.