Lakers Ready to Give It the Old College Try

It’s pretty tough to pay attention to the NBA during March, when even the players are watching the NCAA tournament in the locker room before games.

What the Lakers have to understand is the road to the finals is paved while the college teams are following the road to the Final Four.

“To me, it isn’t a lull period,” Coach Del Harris said. “I’ve heard that, but this is the downhill run, as far as I’m concerned. The barn is in sight. We’ve only got a month to go; we’re down to 20 games.”

Harris takes it so seriously that he used multiple metaphors. The players are starting to show it not with their words but with their play.

They could have taken the night off Thursday against the Clippers at the Pond after beating Portland on Wednesday at the Forum. Instead they “played the kind of game we had to play,” as Harris said, pounding the Clippers throughout the night in a 108-85 blowout.

All of a sudden the Lakers, winners of five in a row, look like a team. There’s communication and camaraderie. Things are going so well that Robert Horry is throwing towels at people in jest, not frustration. He tossed one at Derek Fisher after Fisher tumbled into the ball boys in front of the bench while chasing a ball.

“He’ll be all right,” said Horry, who jokingly told Fisher that he cost himself an assist by not passing the ball to him sooner on an earlier play.

The players are pointing out their shortcomings to each other on the court, not to the media in the locker room.

After one missed opportunity by Shaquille O’Neal, Eddie Jones told him he was open on the perimeter. O’Neal patted his chest and said, “My bad.”

Later, Jones drove and fed O’Neal for a dunk, and instead of mugging for the cameras, O’Neal quickly turned around and pointed to Jones.

“Everybody’s knowing that it’s time to jell,” Horry said. “Everybody knows it’s time to come closer together as a unit, talking with each other. It’s time to become a family, so we know what each other’s thinking.”

It might be coming a little too late. In a two-week span in February, six games and a total of 13 points represent the difference between the Lakers holding first place in the Pacific Division and their current spot in second, three games behind Seattle.

It started when O’Neal missed a free throw that could have given the Lakers a one-point lead against the SuperSonics in the waning moments of regulation on Feb. 13. The Lakers lost in overtime. They lost by two points to Houston two days later. They fell, 96-94, in Orlando on Feb. 22. Meanwhile, the SuperSonics survived when opponents missed last-second shots in one-point victories against the Clippers and the Minnesota Timberwolves and Seattle eked out a two-point victory over Atlanta on Feb. 27.

Had the Lakers won all of those games and Seattle lost them, it would cause a 3 1/2-game swing in the standings.

The Lakers are 1-3 in games decided by two points or less, although Harris prefers the statistic that shows the Lakers are 3-3 in games decided by three points or less. But the SuperSonics have them beat there too. They’re 6-2 in three-point games--and 10-2 in games decided by five points or less.

The Lakers had won a respectable enough seven of their past 10 games before Thursday night. But Utah went 9-1, including eight in a row, and all of a sudden it’s the Jazz who own the second-best record in the Western Conference.

The way things are shaping up right now, the Lakers are headed toward a second-round matchup with Utah, and Utah would have home-court edge.

“And . . . ?” O’Neal said.

Well, you saw what happened when the Chicago Bulls had to go there in the finals last year. (Not to mention the Lakers’ own experience there).

“And . . . ?”

OK, so O’Neal isn’t that scared. Then again, unlike a certain head coach, his job security doesn’t depend on the result of that second-round series. (While on the Harris front, his relationship with O’Neal must be on pretty good terms judging by this bark during the game: “C’mon, Shaqie.” Shaqie?)

O’Neal has a simple explanation for Utah’s home-court success last season. “They were hungry,” O’Neal said.

Are the Lakers hungrier now?

“We’ll find out if we get there,” he said. “We’ve got to be [hungrier]. We’re never going to go home early again.”

If nothing else, the best thing to come out of March from the Lakers’ standpoint is the play of Derek Fisher. He has done so well filling in at point guard for the injured Nick Van Exel that the team shouldn’t worry if Van Exel gets in foul trouble or his knees act up again during the playoffs.

Now Harris needs to work on this whole Kobe Bryant situation.

After Bryant had a shot blocked and then tried to make an acrobatic shot on a two-on-one (not a good idea when the other guy is O’Neal), Harris sat him on the bench for the last 10 minutes of the first half. Bryant finished the game with only two buckets in nine shots and four turnovers in 12 minutes.

Even though it’s March 1998, it’s hard not to think back to May 1997 and look ahead to May 1998 and wonder if Harris would trust Bryant again if the Lakers were in Utah and the season hung in the balance.