A Second Impression for Lakers

The Lakers underwent surgery Sunday to re-attach their heads to their shoulders. They are listed as probable for tonight.

That only guarantees an appearance at the Delta Center for Game 2 of the Western Conference finals against the Utah Jazz, though. Whether it also includes a response remains to be seen. Or felt.

Ah, yes. The pain. It had subsided some 24 hours later only in a sea of putting-it-behind-us cliches by the time the Lakers gathered for practice, an attempt to move forward after the debacle of the 112-77 loss and to remind people that one of their most pronounced traits for years has been resiliency, having already reminded people that one of their other traits for years has been to become overconfident despite having yet to win what really matters.

“Just one of those days,” Shaquille O’Neal said.

For who? The Bad News Bears?

No Los Angeles Laker team had ever been beaten worse in the playoffs, a span of 422 games.

No Los Angeles Laker team had ever made fewer baskets (23) or shot worse (29.5%) in the regular season or playoffs, merely a span of 38 seasons and 3,524 games.

Their absence from the conference finals had stretched to seven years and a game, and they had to come back a day later and face the very real possibility that it actually can get worse. An 0-2 deficit, with another loss tonight.

“In a sense,” Coach Del Harris reasoned, “it might be better than losing by one or two points. That is something we’re going to find out in Game 2.”

Might be better because his Lakers may have needed to get taken down a couple notches, even if the Jazz clearly misunderstood and took them down a couple thousand. So went the latest example of the team that often can’t stand its own success.

It’s been that way all along.

The worst stretch of the season--a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, sluggish showings against the Toronto Raptors and Denver Nuggets, a three-game losing streak capped by a defeat at Golden State--had come in the days after the record-setting run of 11 consecutive wins.

The difficult time with the Clippers and the loss to the Celtics two days later came on the heels of the 4-1 December trip that included victories over two division leaders at the time, the Rockets and Hawks, and against five teams that by the end of the journey had a .608 winning percentage.

And now this. The best run of the season, four consecutive wins over the SuperSonics and the emergence as the hottest team in the playoffs, to a 35-point embarrassment.

“I think we do maintain the focus,” said Eddie Jones, who went from 54.4% in the five games against Seattle to two of six from the field in Game 1 versus the Jazz. “It’s just sometimes you go out and get a little overconfident.”

Added Rick Fox: “I wouldn’t say we were too high. You want to have that level of confidence, but I don’t think you want arrogance. I think we teetered into arrogance after the Seattle series.”

To be smacked back in place in the Utah series.

To lose their composure in the process.

Harris disagrees with such an assessment--”We didn’t have any real displays of temper or guys acting stupid”--but he was about the only one as the Lakers’ great move toward maturity took a hit. They were well aware of the “veteran tricks” of the Jazz, and then got duped big time.

“We definitely fell into it,” Nick Van Exel said. “They [the Jazz] got the better of it.”

Robert Horry shoved John Stockton with two hands after being unable to fight through one of Stockton’s famous screens in the lane, earning a personal. Jones got a flagrant foul for dumping Stockton under the basket, even though the ball wasn’t anywhere near them. Van Exel got a flagrant for crashing into Adam Keefe, though that was more a matter of a bad collision 15 feet from the basket than a cheap shot. Van Exel got a technical. So did Harris.

“That was just kind of our frustration with the way the game was going,” Derek Fisher said. “I don’t think it was us losing our composure. I think our heads were in the right place, but we were frustrated.”

Except that their heads weren’t in the right place, having been knocked off by the Jazz. Good thing they had Sunday, a time for various mendings.