Playoff Destiny Is in Front of Them

Kurt Rambis diagramed it like a math equation on the Great Western Forum locker room board:

With 18 Laker games left, four teams stand ahead of the Lakers in the Western Conference playoff race, which means the Lakers would open the postseason in San Antonio if it started today.

But only 3 1/2 games separate the Lakers from No. 1-seeded Portland, whom the Lakers play four times in the final month of the season, and eight of the Lakers’ remaining games are against teams that are ahead of them.

“We just drew them up on the board so everybody knew where we stood,” the Laker coach said Wednesday, referring to his hand-written chart of the Western standings.

“If we just end up playing some good basketball at this time of the year, we can put ourselves in a very good position come playoff time. We’ve got to be playing our best basketball at the end of the season.”

Shaquille O’Neal said there’s no reason to worry about the Lakers’ stretch run.

“The No. 1 spot, home-court advantage--if we don’t get that, I think anywhere between one and four will be OK,” O’Neal said, adding that it wouldn’t even bother him to be No. 5 if San Antonio, whom the Lakers have beaten six consecutive times, is No. 4.

“Because I think we can go to San Antonio and get a win. We just need one.”

Said Kobe Bryant: “There’s only 18 games left, time to turn it up now. You can see, we’ve played more than any of them, and we’ve still got Portland four times and Utah twice. And they both dropped games [Tuesday].”

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Glen Rice showed up to practice with a cold, was sent to a doctor and did not practice at all--delaying Rambis’ plans to use this week to get Rice more comfortable in the offense and to kick off a rush to the playoffs.

Robert Horry (hip injury) also stayed out of most of the drills, Derek Fisher and Rick Fox practiced but nursed assorted pains, and O’Neal sat out a few drills to rest his stomach muscle.

“I wanted to have a nice practice, but it didn’t turn out that way, unfortunately,” Rambis said. “It does get frustrating. But what’s most important is how we play in games. So I can’t go freaking out over a practice . . .

“Aside from Robert being hurt, Glen not being here, Shaq’s stomach’s problems, Fish’s foot, Rick’s foot, Fish’s face, [Derek] Harper being 37 years old, Dennis [Rodman] being 37 years old . . . [aside from] about half the team being hurt, I guess we looked about as fresh as we could be.”

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O’Neal, on a report that Michael Jordan is contemplating coming out of retirement to play for the Charlotte Hornets, the team that recently acquired former Lakers Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell:

“Whatever he wants to do, I’m happy for him. Eddie and Elden would like that.”