Quiet Ends on Rodman Front

In the continuing saga of Dennis Rodman, the question now is what happens today.

Before his refusal to report into the game in the fourth quarter Friday night, it had been almost two full weeks since Rodman had disappeared or refused to enter a game or as much as showed up late for a practice.

Which was definitely a Laker record for time lapsed between Rodman chaos.

“He’s made an effort to be on time for everything,” Coach Kurt Rambis said before the game.

Several sources also say that Laker management, indirectly or not, informed Rodman on March 27, after a meeting with Rambis, that his behavior, including departing the team for seven days and then showing up 75 minutes late for a practice six days after rejoining it, was bringing him very close to a release.

“He’s done everything that I’ve wanted him to do,” Rambis said before the game. “So I have absolutely zero complaints.”

Co-captain Derek Harper said Rodman had been more of a real teammate since the last episode.

“He’s talking more,” Harper said before the game. “He’s communicating more. Especially on the court, in the locker room. He’s done a lot of things.

“The way we’re going--winning one, losing one, winning two, losing one--I think we can’t afford to really, really focus on anything but our games. . . . [The playoff race] is very bunched up. And that’s all the more reason everyone should be paying attention to their game and trying to do all that they can to help the team.”

*

Rambis said he would like to give Harper more games in which he plays fewer than 25 minutes, such as last Tuesday and Wednesday, when the 37-year-old point guard played only 17 and 13 minutes against Utah and Sacramento.

With Derek Fisher, the starter when the season began, and rookie Tyronn Lue seeing some extended time, those were Harper’s lowest two stints of the season.

“We never intended to play Derek Harper that many minutes to begin with,” Rambis said. “He was brought in as a veteran backup point guard, that was our initial intention with him. He just played so phenomenally well that he deserved more minutes.”

In such a hectic season, Rambis said he has been concerned about the heavy time Harper was logging “every time I look at a stat sheet.”

“I know what it’s like to play when you’re that old. It takes it’s toll on you,” Rambis said.