This Is Anything but Garbage Time

So what comes now?

The Lakers have clinched the best record in the league, have six regular-season games left, and have nothing to prove until playoff time, right?

Not so fast:

* There’s the possibility of winning the rest of their games (finishing with a 17-game streak) and becoming only the second team in league history to reach 70 regular-season victories, following the footsteps of Phil Jackson’s 1995-96 Chicago Bull squad, which won 72.

“I think [winning 70 would] be nice,” Kobe Bryant said. “I think it’d be more than nice, actually. But truthfully, we’re not even thinking about it. We’re just playing.”

The Lakers are 27-1 since the All-Star break, on target to post the league’s all-time best second-half record, besting the 1996-97 Utah Jazz, which went 31-3 after the break.

* There’s the obvious realization that, among the final six games, the Lakers face potential Western Conference playoff foes in five of them, including two against defending champion San Antonio starting Saturday at Staples Center, and have no desire to back down, now or at any time, against such rivals.

“These guys are going to want to go out and play against San Antonio,” Jackson said. “They’re going to want to go out against Seattle, Minnesota, Sacramento--these are all teams that draw the best from us.”

* And there’s the notion that turning on the air-brakes too quickly and for too long could lead to complacency, especially on defense.

Jackson didn’t suit up veteran guard Ron Harper for Wednesday’s victory over Golden State and forward Robert Horry played only one minute in the second half after feeling soreness in both knees.

Jackson said that he would probably give Harper increased time off and that he didn’t think Horry was in jeopardy of missing more action.

“I won’t pull back that much,” Jackson said. “I mean, we want to stay constant, we want to stay vigilant, and we want to stay on key. We’ve got two weeks left and we want to finish out the right way.”

*

The NBA on Thursday received an appeal by Bryant of his one-game suspension without pay and $5,000 fine for fighting with the New York Knicks’ Chris Childs in a game last Sunday.

Bryant already sat out Tuesday’s game in Phoenix, but is seeking to overturn some or all of the financial penalty--the $100,000 (1/90th of his $9-million salary, as clarified by a league spokesman Thursday)--withheld for the suspension plus the fine.

The spokesman said that the next step would be for Bryant to seek an in-person hearing with the commissioner’s office, which probably will be scheduled after the season.

Though Childs had indicated he would appeal his two-game suspension without pay and $15,000 fine, the NBA had not received word from him as of Thursday afternoon.

*

Rookie swingman Devean George may not have established a permanent spot for himself in the playoff rotation with his career-high 14-point performance against Golden State on Wednesday, but he obviously caught Jackson’s eye.

With Harper out, Horry hobbled and Glen Rice experiencing a cold-shooting night, George played 17 minutes at forward and guard and made five of his six shots, including all four from three-point distance.

“Devean’s a good ballplayer,” Jackson said. “We’ve just searched for opportunities to play him and he’s starting to find his way a little bit out there and [Wednesday] was an opportunity to let him play.

“It’s nice--a real nice game for him.”