Lakers Swap Rumors for a Victory

Sometimes the best trades are the ones that aren’t yet made--is that how the cliche goes?

Or maybe this one won’t get made. (Fill in your own contorted cliche here).

In a setting loaded with crisscrossing ironies, but very little competitive tension, Eddie Jones made a whole passel of trade-away, er, fade-away jumpers, Charlotte Hornet forward J.R. Reid actually looked like a real player and everybody got to see several pieces of a potential blockbuster trade parade on the floor.

Along the way, the Lakers had their easiest game of the season, ending a two-game losing streak by pounding the Hornets, 116-88, on Tuesday before 14,093 at the Great Western Forum.

“Sometimes things happen when you’re up against teams you might get traded to,” Jones who made a three-point shot 10 seconds into the game and finished with 19 points (including four-of-five from three-point distance) in 29 minutes, said with a smile.

Jones, who last season torched Sacramento for 28 points in the middle of heavy trade speculation, joked with several Hornets during the game about the rumors that have him and Elden Campbell being shipped to Charlotte in exchange for Glen Rice, B.J. Armstrong (who got a showcase start) and Reid.

“It’s totally impossible not to think about,” said Jones, who was told by Coach Del Harris earlier in the day to try to avoid talking about the subject so it didn’t dominate the Lakers’ minds.

“Any time you see you’re going to get traded to a team you’re playing, or whatever, you try to go out and have a good showing to let them know you can play basketball.”

Jones can play.

Some other Lakers played very well, too, very few Hornets did, and if you need to know, no, Dennis Rodman did not show up.

The Lakers reportedly have decided not to consider the Hornets’ proposal until Rice, who recently underwent elbow surgery, is back playing and regularly stroking his three-point shot.

“If I have to pack up and go to Charlotte, I’ll go,” said Jones, who has consistently made it be known that he would prefer to remain a Laker.

Nobody was regularly making anything from outside for Charlotte on Tuesday--Charlotte, missing Rice and forward Anthony Mason, was only 33 for 91 from the field (36.3%), and the Lakers had a 20-point lead by early in the third quarter.

By leaps and bounds, the final total was most the Lakers have scored this season.

Their previous high was 103 against Denver.

“Psychologically, we needed a good performance,” point guard Derek Harper said. “And we got it.”

Kobe Bryant scored 16 points and had nine rebounds in 31 minutes, and Shaquille O’Neal clocked in with 20 points and 12 rebounds before sitting out the entire fourth quarter.

“It was good to get a game where we could relax a little bit, loosen up, let everybody into the ballgame,” Harris said.

Jones, the most reluctant party to this proposed swap, started the fastest and was the most consistently spectacular.

Jones, who averaged 12.5 points in the first six games, scored 16 points in the first half, making all four of his three-point tries.

Jones also had four rebounds and three assists in the half.

At the same time, Reid, who averaged a little more than 10 points before Tuesday, made five of his first six shots and finished the half with 11 points and five rebounds.

The pace of the game was set in the first quarter, which was played at breakneck pace and was by far the Lakers’ most electric quarter, helped immensely by the Hornets’ lackadaisical defense.

At the end of the first, the Lakers had scored 32 points--after averaging only 22 in their previous six opening periods.

The Lakers (4-3) had an eight-point lead, 32-24, after the first; by halftime, with the Hornets tossing up many, many wild shots and passes, the Laker lead was 62-50.

For the Lakers, deeply frustrated after dropping their second straight home game on Sunday to the Indiana Pacers, this was their first comfortable game--by pace and by double-digit lead--all season.

* RODMAN CALLS LAKERS’ WEST, PAGE 4