Even in Laker Romp, Harris Can’t Stand It

In the final minutes of the fourth quarter of the 71st game of his fourth season in Los Angeles, Del Harris sat down on the job, finally. He took a spot on the bench Sunday night during the 116-89 rout of the Washington Wizards instead of in front of the bench for the first time as coach of the Lakers. Probably, near as he can recall, for the first time this decade.

“Everybody was like, ‘Get a picture of this! Get a picture of this!’ ” Robert Horry said.

Harris, ordinarily a real stand-up guy, was not basking in the closing moments of the easy victory at the Great Western Forum. He was mad at his team’s deteriorated play in the fourth quarter and he “didn’t want to be involved with it.” A sit-down strike of sorts.

But the Lakers had already accomplished what they set out to do. Not simply beat an opponent on the bubble to make the playoffs, but beat them up.

Just like the Lakers had done in the previous game against a lottery-bound club, a 23-point trashing of the Sacramento Kings.

And the game before that, when they dismantled the going-nowhere Denver Nuggets by 21.

And three games before that in the same circumstances, the 23-point rout of the Clippers.

The Lakers are tied with the Bulls for the most double-digit wins in the league, at 31, but Harris still feels the perception that they can’t put away the bad teams. Maybe it doesn’t really exist. Or maybe it does with good reason--the Kings and Vancouver Grizzlies both played them close into the fourth quarter within the last two weeks, Sacramento to the final minute while playing without Mitch Richmond.

Either way, the Lakers can take the final outcome, which came behind 33 points and 13 rebounds from Shaquille O’Neal and 58.3% shooting, as a good sign, especially on the heels of the others like it. As they did early in the season, they are wasting little energy on the downtrodden.

“Now,” Kobe Bryant said after the Lakers ran their season-best home winning streak to nine, “it’s like teams come in and we know we’re going to put them away.”

Though there may not have been much of a game, there was still a challenge for the Lakers into the second half, even after they needed only nine minutes after tipoff to build a 16-point lead and then pushed that to 28 with 2:29 left before intermission. They were getting beat on the boards.

Ordinarily, this might not have been such a pressing concern, coming against a team six spots higher in that department and all. But the events of the night before at the Delta Center weren’t very ordinary either--the Lakers went from outrebounding the opposition in 10 consecutive games to equaling their Los Angeles-era record low by grabbing only 23 boards, three shy of the all-time NBA mark, against the Jazz.

Such a milestone did not pass without Harris noting it to his players, none of whom had more than the seven of Horry, while O’Neal tied his worst showing of the season in that category with five. Harris pointed out as many of the reasons he could figure out.

“I don’t know what to make of it,” he said. “But you have to give Utah and the Utah players credit for making a physical presence above and beyond what was expected.

“It’s not unexpected that they would win a game. But to take away what had been one of our strengths for such a long time, 20 games or so, is a testament to the greatness of what that team possesses. It’s an example we should follow. A bunch of 30-somethings beating a bunch of guys 20-something at what we had been doing well.”

A physical presence? The Jazz, No. 5 in the league in rebounding percentage at the start of play Sunday, dominated, 42-23. The problem for the Lakers at the conclusion of the back-to-back was that Washington was No. 12, especially respectable since it has come mostly while playing without a true center.

So even as the game quickly turned into a rout on the scoreboard, it remained a difficult night on the boards, a sub-plot that was being watched closely in the wake of the Jazz game. At least there were plenty of chances to improve--the Wizards shot 29.5% in the first half, missing 31 of 44 tries.

The Lakers had a slight edge at halftime, 26-23, while running up a 65-37 advantage in the count that really mattered. The Wizards never got closer than 22 the rest of the way, and fell behind by as many as 37, but they won the battle of the boards, 51-50.