FACEOFF : Lakers Versus Jazz Is More Than an Exercise in Revenge

The bandwagon bends from the added weight, the shocks coming in handy as everyone jumps on at once, hurrying to get a good seat before it’s too late and to declare they knew all along the greatness within Shaquille O’Neal and how it was all the others who knocked Jerry West for signing him. Uh huh.

If this was a logical destination from the start of the season, the Western Conference finals, against the team that had eliminated them a year ago at that, it came with the most circuitous of routes. Even the Lakers couldn’t help but question their maturity along the way, either because that was the easiest way to brace for the fast-approaching impact or, more likely, because they’re able to be realistic while being optimistic.

But here they are after all, facing their greatest moment together and their greatest challenge. The Utah Jazz.

“The team that beat us last season because they were more mature,” forward Rick Fox said.

One and the same, even if Fox wasn’t a Laker at the time, taking liberties to include the revenge angle in his current motivation.

The Jazz. More mature.

Once upon a time, at least. What arrives at the Delta Center this afternoon for the start of the best-of-seven series and the trip to the NBA finals is either the ultimate tease or a team that had its growth spurt in the last two weeks, so convincing were the Lakers against Seattle that SuperSonic Coach George Karl noted, “Mentally, I think we’ve awakened a great basketball team.”

It could very well be remembered, depending on what transpires at the end of this season and the next couple, as the Lakers’ coming of age. A moment--one series, four consecutive victories--when they turned downright stable. Unshakable.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in a basketball series where I’ve been as dominated with a good basketball team,” Karl said.

Of course, it may all become simply the buildup for an even greater fall this time around, this playoff-maturity thing still being a new weapon and all. On the other hand, if it becomes the start, giving talent the proper focus, the Bulls may get scattered before Jerry Reinsdorf has anything to say about it.

“We’re getting it,” Laker forward Robert Horry said. “As each series passes, we’re getting it more. The good sign was when Seattle made a run at us and we didn’t panic. We just came together and made our run right back.”

He should know, having played on the two Houston Rocket teams that won championships, including once going all the way after entering the playoffs as the No. 6 seed in the West. They had veterans and maturity.

Sort of like the team he plays on now.

“Surprisingly, yes,” Horry said. “We’ve come a long way. It was like a metamorphosis overnight. I don’t know where it came from. We pay attention more. We’re not as gripey. We watch a lot of film now because we know it helps.”

Said Coach Del Harris: “I want to believe that. It’s just a matter of keeping it going. We’ve done it. Now we have to maintain it and be consistent with it.

“You’ve got to acknowledge what we’ve done. But that’s like leading the race at Indianapolis for 300 miles. You get some good out of it. You get some lap money. But you’ve got to be ahead at 400 or 500 miles to get someone to kiss you.”

In other words, he’s cautious. It’s as if he has been around this group for a few years or something.

Being slow to accept maturity as a thing of permanence is understandable, given the history of such letdowns. But the most recent jump has also been the most pronounced, offering optimism.

Again.

“The Seattle series, in itself, was such a dominating series from our point of view that it kind of brought to the forefront the way we’re capable of playing,” Fox said. “Yeah, I think if we do go forward, people will say it started with the Seattle series.

“Now we know where the pot hole is. Are we going to drive a car in it? Or avoid it?

“If we drive through it again, I hope we’ve got a bigger truck.”

Does a bandwagon count?