Harris Says Absolutely Not to Shake-Ups

The Lakers return to action tonight at the Great Western Forum in hopes of finding something other than the remnants of the Western Conference finals waiting for them, the chances for winning four of five against the Utah Jazz slim but still possible given their considerable firepower and resiliency.

They’ll worry only about Game 3 for now. And not the various suggestions for lineup changes, pick-and-roll defenses and the like that have come from almost every predictable source, from newspaper articles and faxes to the Laker office and the web site https://www.delharris.com.

“Why would I react like some moron and panic?” an irritated Del Harris said of questions after practice Thursday as to whether he would go for the shake-up and put Nick Van Exel back in the starting lineup.

In other words, no shake-ups.

“What we don’t need to do is reinvent a new way to play,” Harris said. “We won 61 games, they won 62 games. We’ve played six times [including the regular season]. We’ve won three each. What we need to do is just come home and take care of business here.”

The key stat now, of course, is that they’ve played two times in this best-of-seven series and the Jazz won both. A three-day layoff, dictated by the scheduling preferences of TNT and NBC, followed before the matchup resumes tonight after a shift from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles.

“That team is old,” Laker Eddie Jones said of the Jazz, claiming the extended break might give Utah an advantage. “We’ve been playing all the other series every other night. Why stop now?

“You want to be out there playing. You hate having to simulate a game at practice by scrimmaging. You want to be out there against the team that embarrassed you.”

Said Rick Fox: “Right now, it’s a situation where everybody is on edge. We want to get back out on the court.”

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Robert Horry rejoined practice Thursday after skipping most of the workout the day before to rest his bruised right hip and said his side feels fine, or at least fine enough that he should be able to play with much more effectiveness than the second half of Game 2.

“Robert was very active today,” Harris said after practice. “I was very happy. I thought he’d go half, but he went the whole way.”

Horry suffered the injury in the second quarter Monday at the Delta Center. He briefly went to the locker room and returned to action, but hobbled through 13 second-half minutes after the joint tightened up during intermission.