New Home Has Room for Breather

Amid the early-season hubbub, the Lakers found peace and quiet Wednesday at a brand-new, $400-million airplane hangar . . . oops, arena.

Home-court advantage?

In the Lakers’ debut at the immense new Staples Center, it was more like a home-court hush, the mild murmur of 18,997 and some occasionally effective basketball.

Shhhhhh, there are people playing basketball down there.

For the most part, the Lakers matched the cool and calm mood, using an efficient shooting streak in the third quarter to pull away from the Vancouver Grizzlies, 103-88, to run the Lakers’ record to 2-0.

There were no fireworks or flashpoints or fan eruptions, only a businesslike victory over an outmanned opponent.

Laker Coach Phil Jackson acknowledged that the game was played with a strange rhythm.

“The energy was weird in the first half,” he said. “Everything was really weird.”

Shaquille O’Neal, head and shoulders better than anybody Vancouver could throw at him (Bryant Reeves? Obinna Ekezie?) led the way with 28 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.

And Glen Rice had his second consecutive strong game, tallying 17 points (on eight-for-13 shooting), six rebounds and five assists.

“I’m talking to Glen every day and telling him we need 20 out of him,” O’Neal said. “If we can get 20 out of him and I do my thing and Kobe [Bryant] comes back, we can beat anybody.” After his big opening-night performance in Utah, Rice is averaging 22.5 points.

In the third quarter, after a first half that saw Vancouver stick with the Lakers, the Lakers outscored Vancouver, 30-19, to take a 79-67 lead.

In the quarter, the Lakers made 14 of of their 19 shots (73.7%), including six of seven by O’Neal, who scored 13 points.

The Lakers needed the effective shooting to offset an incredible Grizzly free-throw shooting advantage: Vancouver made 28 of 39 free-throw tries, while the Lakers went to the line only 17 times, making 10.

For much of the game, the action seemed distant. At times, fans at opposite ends of the court could have had a nice conversation.

“I need the fans to be more rowdy, they’re too laid-back for me sometimes,” O’Neal said. “But we need to make them rowdy. It’s a two-way street.”

“This is the fourth or fifth time I’ve been here,” Jackson said before the game. “I didn’t like it that much on Bruce Springsteen’s concert night that I was here . . . “

But Jackson said the team was ready to play in such a different building from the Great Western Forum, and the solid shooting seemed to show that.

“The practices we’ve had here, I think guys have understood what this building brings,” Jackson said, “as far as the context, the depth, the size, the immensity of the backdrop that you’ve got to work against.”

“It’s a big building,” O’Neal said. “ I didn’t know it was this big. I missed a couple of lay-ups because I looked up at the top and didn’t know it was that . . . big.” High, high above the action below in the 300-level section, there was “the Wave.”

Up close and very personal, there was Pamela Anderson Lee in the VIP seats.

And on the floor, the Lakers took care of business, and basically let the Grizzlies do what the Grizzlies do--stumble, give up easy baskets and, eventually, lose.

Shareef Abdur-Rahim had 19 points for Vancouver, but made only five of his 19 shots, and committed four turnovers. Overall, the Grizzlies committed 19 turnovers.

The Lakers unveiled their six championship banners--”hopefully, this team will bring us No. 7,” Magic Johnson said--and seven retired jerseys in the Staples Center rafters in a short halftime ceremony emceed by Johnson and Chick Hearn.

Interestingly, video of the Great Western Forum shown on the Staples jumbo-screen received one of the warmest cheers of the night.

The two quarters that preceded the ceremony, however, were hardly evocative of the franchise’s past glory.

Before the game, Jackson said he worried about having to play the home opener the night after the Lakers’ emotional victory in Utah over the Jazz.

And the Lakers spent most of the first half proving the point.

Against a Grizzly team that was 1-24 on the road last season, and that came into the game missing several big pieces, the Lakers failed to put together any sustained play in the first half and led, 49-48, at the break.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

HOME OPENER BY THE NUMBERS

18,997: Attendance at Staples Center, sixth-highest in NBA this season.

49%: Laker scoring provided by Glen Rice and Shaquille O’Neal in two games (96 of 194 points).

41%: O’Neal’s free-throw shooting through two games (7 of 17)

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RANDY HARVEY

Any home-court advantage at Staples Center will have to be earned by the Lakers.

Page 2

MARK HEISLER

The Lakers had a new home, and the outmanned Grizzlies looked like the doormat.

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