New Tune for Lakers

Regardless of how many times the Lakers might say otherwise, this wasn’t just another victory.

This one game against the Utah Jazz had the power to wipe out all positives the Lakers generated by their six-game winning streak. If they walked out of the Delta Center with another poor showing, you’d have to wonder just how much they really progressed with the addition of Dennis Rodman and the switch to Kurt Rambis at coach.

Until they conquer Utah in the playoffs, the Lakers have no choice but to measure themselves against the Jazz, the same way U.S. travelers have to adjust to the metric system when they go to Europe.

With a 97-89 victory in hand, the Lakers can keep feeling good about their recent turn of events. By knocking off Houston, Seattle and now Utah, the Lakers validated their winning streak that now stands at seven games.

Sunday’s game contained some elements of what should be the blueprint for Laker success: lots of Shaquille O’Neal early, lots of Kobe Bryant late, enough big performances from role players in between, aggressive rebounding and a few fastbreak baskets mixed in.

Plus the Lakers actually prevailed in the test of wills. They did what they wanted and showed offensive patience in the fourth quarter while the Jazz forgot how to run their offense, getting so out of whack that on one of their trademark pick-and-rolls John Stockton bounced a pass that Malone could only watch as it went out of bounds.

The Lakers even provided another reason to think twice about making that trade with Charlotte for Glen Rice. It had nothing to do with Eddie Jones, who had an almost invisible five points in 41 minutes.

Elden Campbell, the other guy who would leave town in that deal, helped carry the Lakers in stretches with 16 points and six rebounds in 26 minutes. That gives him 30 points and 18 rebounds in the two games against Utah. He also was more effective than any other Laker when it came to guarding Malone.

That includes Rodman. Even Travis Knight gave Malone more problems than Rodman on Sunday. Malone took long, weak fall-away jump shots against Knight. When Rodman came in, Malone went to the low post and scored hard-fought, but closer baskets. Malone scored 22 of his 34 points with Rodman in the game.

Asked afterward if he thought Rodman did a good job against him, Malone said: “Please.”

Rodman’s greatest success against Malone was bringing the Mailman down to his level as the two made like a couple of fourth-graders and exchanged silly little taps just before halftime. They both received technical fouls. They should have been forced to clean the chalkboards after school.

If the Lakers were willing to put up with whatever disruptions Rodman might cause because he supposedly could stop Malone, the Lakers should be able to tolerate Campbell’s aggravating disappearing acts as long as he keeps showing up against the Jazz.

Don’t forget, O’Neal has missed big chunks of the past three seasons with injuries and Campbell always filled in well. At $7 million a year, Campbell’s an expensive insurance policy. But isn’t this team worth such a high premium?

What the status of that trade is right now is anyone’s guess. Who’s calling the shots is up in the air, too.

One minute, Laker owner Jerry Buss is saying, “That’s what I’m here for, is to direct the team in a basketball sense” and the next he’s referring questions about trades to Executive Vice President Jerry West. But he did find it worth noting that, “This team just beat Utah.”

He reiterated that he thinks this team can win a championship, and when asked why anyone would want to tinker with it then, he very delicately added, “If somebody were to tinker with it, I would imagine they’d try to make it easier to win the championship.”

Rodman still offers plenty of helpful suggestions to Rambis. For that matter, so did Bryant, whose advice was, essentially, “chill.” “I’m a very young, immature coach,” Rambis said. “I get a little excited out there. He was basically just telling me to calm down.”

After a timeout late in the game, with the victory in hand and the Delta Center fans heading for the exits (to beat that notorious Salt Lake City Sunday traffic), Bryant looked at Rambis and said, “What’d I tell you?”

Putting the ball in Bryant’s hands in crunch time is looking safer and safer. Not only is he the team’s best free-throw shooter, he also is adept at creating shots.

He created a much-needed highlight for NBC when he drove the lane and dunked over Greg Ostertag. Ostertag already had to deal with the elephant-like memory of O’Neal in the first quarter, when O’Neal continued his one-sided feud by scoring the bulk of his 23 points against the overmatched Ostertag. But it turned out Ostertag also had some payback coming from Bryant.

“He blocked my dunk three times during the playoffs,” Bryant said. “I didn’t forget about that. I didn’t appreciate that.”

It was clear the Lakers didn’t appreciate this notion that their Utah’s waterboys.

“We wanted to get out of that so-called funk,” O’Neal said. “everybody’s been writing that we’ve been having a funk against Utah. I guess some of the guys started to believe it. We just wanted to come here and just play our game.”

This won’t make the Jazz resort to drastic measures such as firing the coach or signing a sideshow act. When the Lakers come here and beat them in the playoffs, then they’ll start to worry.

But for the Lakers there’s a little less doubt, a little more reason to enjoy their recent good fortune.