Lakers Going Hollyweird

Two perilous things happened to the Lakers on Monday, twin pieces of this curious, combustible, incomprehensible season.

Dennis Rodman finally said he would sign with them. (Didn’t he?)

And the Lakers finally, pointedly, showed how much they actually might need him. (Didn’t they?)

The moment is coming. The time is ripe. What happens now?

“Hopefully, he’ll help,” said an exasperated Derek Harper, after the Lakers blew a 12-point fourth quarter lead and lost to the Denver Nuggets, 117-113, in overtime at McNichols Sports Arena.

“We need help as a basketball team, obviously . . . He’s a high-energy player. He’s a defensive player that can guard centers, forwards. He can rebound the basketball. He led the league in rebounding most of his career.

“We could use what he brings as a player.”

While Rodman was back in Beverly Hills or wherever, still unsigned, the Lakers--playing the middle game of a three-games-in-three-cities road trip--had the Nuggets beat, then staggered into overtime after Denver made three straight three-pointers to close regulation.

Nick Van Exel, the erstwhile Laker, led Denver to an early jump on the Lakers in overtime, and the Lakers expired well before the clock did. Today, they head to Vancouver to try to prevent an 0-3 sweep.

“Desperation?” guard Eddie Jones said, repeating the last word of a question. “I think a better word is need-a-win.”

Amid a swarm of Rodman-drawn cameras, there were two answerless questions that hung in the air of the Laker locker room, as Coach Del Harris gave credit to Van Exel for several late key plays and Shaquille O’Neal stayed away from tearing into the referees, the league, or David Stern.

Could Rodman have prevented this?

Will things be different than this 6-5 blah-start once he arrives, assuming he signs a two-year contract today, as the Lakers expect, assuming he plays later this week, and assuming he doesn’t corrode the atmosphere even more?

“He’s going to get some rebounds--he’s going to be a big help,” said O’Neal, who fouled out in overtime with 28 points and seven rebounds.

“Our first 11 games, 6-5, that’s not that good.”

That’s not what the Lakers expected out of this season.

But they also didn’t expect to be pining for the dress-wearing, media conference-crying, opponent-maddening Rodman for most of the first month, either.

Be careful what you ask for . . .

“You know, it might be just what you need,” Jones said, “some laughing, some fun. . . . We’re not playing as well as we need to be playing right now.

“We might need this show, this person to come in and, you know, make it entertaining.”

Kobe Bryant, who was one assist short of the first triple-double of his career (26 points, a career-high 13 rebounds and a career-high nine assists), said he didn’t watch Rodman’s melodramatic media conference, but had his agent, Arn Tellem, give him the interesting details.

“I heard he cried,” Bryant said before the game. “It’s going to be bananas.”

Then the first wave of camera crews began pouring into the tiny road locker room, like the first wave at Normandy.

“Look at this, man. Look at this!” Bryant said, nodding at the oncoming horde. “It’s going to be funny.”

Rodman’s quirky character and penchant for dominating the spotlight won’t be a factor with the Lakers, Bryant said, as long as they refuse to make it one.

As long as they win, he didn’t have to say.

“It’s important for us not to focus on personalities,” Bryant said. “It doesn’t make a difference. There’s been championship teams in the past where guys hated one another.

“On this team that’s not the case. But teams in the past, guys hated each other but they went out there and they got the job done.

“Personality doesn’t mean a darn thing once you’re out on the court, as long as you’re together out there.”

And so far, the Lakers admit they are a little off-kilter, searching to blend together as a unit instead of many separate talents.

On Monday, Bryant was astounding, Elden Campbell stepped into the breach with his best game of the season (a season-high 24 points, eight rebounds), Jones was electric . . . and the Nuggets got double-digit scoring from six players, and the Lakers lost.

“To give a game away, obviously, it’s tough,” Harper said. “We don’t have any cohesiveness as a basketball team is what the main problem is, more than anything.

“We’re just not tied together as a team, and I think it shows when you lose a 12-point lead the way we lost that 12-point lead tonight.”

A Laker source said that despite the three games in three days, the team probably will hold a light workout with Rodman on Wednesday to show him some of the plays.

Van Exel, traded away from the Lakers last June after battling with Harris off-and-on for years, soaked in what he called “my biggest win since I came to Denver,” and laughed when he was asked about Harris and Rodman.

“He thought I was a problem? I want to see Dennis go over there personally,” Van Exel said. “I want to see how Del handles it . . .

“I wasn’t the cancer there. The cancer there has white hair . . .

“My honest opinion is, it depends on Dennis Rodman’s attitude. If he comes in with his great rebounding, the intensity he always brings to the game, he’s going to be great for that team.

“If he comes in with all his antics and just thinking about Dennis Rodman the show, he’s going to kill that team.”

* SHAQ FINED: Criticism of NBA officials will cost Laker center $10,000 as league punishes him. Page 6