Lakers vs. SuperSonics Preordained

And so it came to be.

“It’s probably the natural order of things,” Del Harris reasoned.

Lakers versus SuperSonics in the best-of-seven second round, starting Monday in Seattle.

“It’s only appropriate we would play them at some point in the playoffs, after all the struggles we’ve had the last few years,” the Laker coach said.

The L.A. victory in the first round in 1995 behind the greatness of Nick Van Exel. The battle down to the final sunset in the Pacific in 1996-97, before the SuperSonics won the division on the last day. The near-duplication this season, when the same team won the same way, and then only after each went 61-21 and Seattle got the prize on a tiebreaker, the 3-1 record in head-to-head meetings.

“By rights, we ought to have to play it out,” Harris said.

By decree of fate, they will.

“We think we’re better and they probably think they’re better than we are,” he continued. “So let’s go out behind the barn. That’s what we used to do in the Midwest.”

Must be an Indiana thing.

“I think they go behind the alley here.”

Only in attitude. They’ll actually go to downtown Seattle first, in the shadow of the Space Needle, and then to Inglewood, in the glare of expectations, with the 2-2-1-1-1 format in which the winner gets a trip to the Western Conference finals, not to mention the claim of temporary superiority in what arguably has developed into the league’s best rivalry.

The matchup, this time, was finalized Saturday afternoon as the SuperSonics beat the pesky Timberwolves at KeyArena in a deciding Game 5 and the Lakers watched on TV in the Forum Club before practice, cheering as fans on some plays but still pulling in opposite directions. Some players wanted Minnesota, because of the 4-0 advantage in the season series and because it would have meant an extra game, if necessary, in Los Angeles.

And some wanted Seattle, because it’s Seattle.

“We become the aggressors,” Rick Fox said. “With Minnesota, we would have been the favorite and the protector.”

Added Derek Fisher: “Now you do say to yourself that this is what you want. Utah winning [Friday] night, that’s what you want. When you’re on your way to winning a championship, you don’t want people saying anything to you. If we had gotten past this round against Minnesota, people would have said, ‘You had it easy without Seattle.’

“I think going the hard way is what we need. . . . I think we like going into a series when we’re the underdog and have something to prove. I think that’s obvious from the whole season.”

A season in which the Lakers lost twice to the 76ers and once to the Warriors and Celtics while also struggling against various degrees of the downtrodden, but also went a commendable 14-6 against the seven other teams that posted winning percentages of at least .650. That tied--with the SuperSonics--for the best such mark in the NBA and included 4-0 versus the Spurs and 3-1 against the Jazz.

But it also included 1-3 in meetings with Seattle, big games each in which both teams were at full strength in the opening lineup. The late start to the series, Jan. 24, that made for extra buildup also allowed Shaquille O’Neal to get back from his strained abdominal muscle and about three weeks of action before the trip to KeyArena on Super Bowl Saturday. And when Van Exel missed 13 consecutive games because of a bad right knee that eventually required surgery, he was back in time for the two March contests.

The health concerns at the start of this series are the same as those at the end of the last one, Fox and his sore foot and Kobe Bryant and his tender groin and sore back, both the lingering effects from the jammed pelvis suffered five weeks ago at Toronto. Bryant didn’t help matters by “tweaking” the back Thursday at Portland, but both practiced Saturday, after the entire team got Friday off, and reported improvement.

“There’s no way you could have told he was hurting,” Harris said of Bryant’s Game 4 showing. “A couple times, he was eye-high to the rim. I thought he played magnificently.

“Rick’s so tough, I think he’s going to play through whatever it is. This guy has got enough adrenaline running through him to take care of two or three guys.”

Said one of them, Fox himself: “I was hoping to have to Tuesday [before the series started.] But this is good.”

It’ll have to be.

It’s the SuperSonics, after all.