Harris Makes Some Noise About Utah

Medical update: The Lakers on Tuesday were able to hear themselves think again.

This was as opposed to Monday at the Delta Center filled with fans who lustily react to most every basket or call, especially in the playoffs, which makes for a great atmosphere and a great support system for the Jazz. For the Jazz opponents, not so great.

“It’s a factor, there’s no doubt,” Coach Del Harris said. “[Monday] night, one of the critical layups that John Stockton made, Shaquille [O’Neal] was trying to pull a trick on him and change our pick-and-roll coverage for that moment. He was yelling out a change in coverage and Derek [Fisher] couldn’t hear it. Derek thought that he would have help on the backside and Shaq was yelling another coverage, so they were able to walk it in.

“It [the noise] gets us into our play sets a little later than I would like. We should have learned from Portland and Seattle, both of which are equally loud arenas, but we were able to get by with a little less execution against those teams. We tried to get our guys to be aware, to look back to our point guard quicker so that we can get into our play sets sooner, because you can’t hear the calls. There’s no way. They have to be hand signals. It’s extremely loud.

“We’re different here. But it’s all right. It’s not a negative for us. We’re able to hear our signals. We could hold a conversation during the game.

“We’re not a loud crowd here. We have a different sort of a crowd here. We have a loyal and interested crowd, but it’s different. The small-town or smaller-market fan is just different than the big-city fan, basically. In Salt Lake, this is what you have. You got the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and you got the Jazz. At Portland, it’s the only big league team they have. Seattle, I don’t know, they just drink so much coffee they just can’t do it any differently.”

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Stop us if you’ve heard this before.

The Lakers were upset with the referees after Game 2 of a playoff series in Salt Lake City, putting at least part of the blame on officials after a close loss that dropped them in an 0-2 hole against the Utah Jazz. It happened Monday night.

Just like it happened 50 weeks ago.

“It definitely reminds me of that,” Nick Van Exel said.

He should know. It was Van Exel who got hit on the shooting arm while trying a last-second three-point shot in Game 2 of the 1997 Western Conference semifinals without getting the call from Jack Nies that would have sent the point guard to the line for the chance to tie or win. Monday in Salt Lake City, he was one of several Lakers upset at Steve Javie.

“They might as well be twins,” Van Exel said.