Jackson Shows He Can Give Players a Splice of Life When It’s Needed

Coach Phil Jackson heralded the start of the postseason and prepared his team for Sunday’s Game 1 against Sacramento with one of his favorite methods--splicing movie scenes into long strategy film sessions.

Jackson did similar editing jobs with the Chicago Bulls at various important points, but Thursday’s film session was his first splice job for Laker players, who seemed appreciative of the end result.

“Splicing the videos, with movies and stuff, it was ridiculous--it was interesting, though, it kept everybody interested,” Kobe Bryant said after Friday’s long practice.

“He said he was going to give us movies that I could relate to, make sure everything was ‘80s and up [such as] ‘American History X.’ . . .

“The whole thing caught us off guard, but everything had a purpose, everything had a message.”

Said Jackson: “It’s a lively distraction from basketball nonsense.”

Jackson would not elaborate exactly what his point to the players was, but he has said recently that he wanted to address the team’s history of flopping in the playoffs and hoped to push it in another direction.

“I will say that it has something to do with the past, and also something to do with the future,” Jackson said.

Said Glen Rice: “The message basically was letting us know that we’ve got to tighten it up, we’ve got to be a lot more focused, we’ve got to know what we’re dealing with and be ready to step up to the challenge.”

Jackson said he chose scenes from several movies, including “The Green Mile,” and “The Matrix,” though he felt the picking was a little slim.

“I’m going to have to speak with some of the producers and directors in Hollywood to supply motivational stories,” Jackson said, grinning.

“The ultimate result was I didn’t really find anything that really fit the bill for all of our players.”

Said Shaquille O’Neal: “I thought it was pretty good. It made us shift our minds every now and then. But the movies he threw in, they were giving us little subliminal messages. So maybe you had to be smart to understand a lot of them.”

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After shortening workouts to keep his players fresh, Jackson held the team’s first hard practice in several weeks on Friday, and said he was looking mainly to bring his players’ conditioning back to a high level.

Bryant said his right wrist, which he sprained this week, felt fine for the first part of practice, then stiffened as he continued to work. But Bryant said he should have no problems Sunday.

Jackson said that Derek Fisher, recently activated from the injured list after developing a bone spur in his ankle, was held out of the last part of practice, but Fisher later said he is fine.

Meanwhile, O’Neal said that though he did experience some pain in his right shoulder after receiving several hard fouls from the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, he is fine.

Asked if his elbow to David Robinson’s stomach at the end of the Spur game (and after a hard Robinson foul of him) was a statement to Robinson and the Spurs, O’Neal shook his head.

“I wasn’t saying anything,” O’Neal said. “My focus is going to be on Sacramento and if [the Spurs are] around the second round, then I’ll answer those questions.

“I do things that I want to do, not because I’m trying to retaliate or trying to hurt somebody.”

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THE SCHEDULE

Best-of-five series

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GAME 1 Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Staples Center Channel 4 GAME 2 Thursday, 7:30 p.m. Staples Center Fox Sports Net GAME 3 April 30, 2:30 p.m. at Sacramento Channel 4 GAME 4 x-May 2 (Time to be announced) at Sacramento Channel 9 GAME 5 x-May 5 (Time to be announced) Staples Center Fox Sports Net

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x-If necessary; All times Pacific

HOW THEY COMPARE

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LAKERS CATEGORY KINGS 5.3 (3 games) Winning Point Differential 12 (1 game) 102.8 Average Points 103 .457 Field Goal Percentage .455 .719 Free Throw Percentage .740 .286 Three-Point Percentage .297 48 Average Rebounds 40 21 Average Assists 20.5 6.25 Average Steals 9.25 5.25 Average Blocks 3.75 16 Average Turnovers 14.5

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REGULAR-SEASON RESULTS

The Lakers won three of four games against the Sacramento Kings this season:

* DEC. 8 AT ARCO ARENA, KINGS 103, LAKERS 91

* High scorers: Lakers--O’Neal, Bryant 27; Kings--Webber 20

* MARCH 12 AT STAPLES CENTER--LAKERS 109, KINGS 106

* High scorers: Lakers--Bryant 40; Kings--Webber 24

* MARCH 26 AT ARCO ARENA--LAKERS 90, KINGS 89

* High scorers: Lakers--O’Neal 34; Kings--Webber 28

* APRIL 14 AT STAPLES CENTER--LAKERS 121, KINGS 114

* High scorers: Lakers--O’Neal 41; Kings--Webber 36

HEAD TO HEAD

How the teams fared statistically in their four games, three of which were won by the Lakers:

LAKERS

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Player R A P O’Neal 13.3 3.0 35.3 Bryant 8.8 5.5 30.5 Rice 6.0 1.3 15.0 Horry 4.0 1.0 6.3 Shaw 3.3 3.3 4.7 Green 6.5 0.8 4.3 Fisher 1.0 1.0 4.0 Harper 2.8 3.5 3.3 Celestand 1.0 0.0 2.0 Salley 1.0 0.0. 2.0 Fox 2.3 2.5 0.8 George 1.0 0.0 0.0 Knight 0.7 0.3 0.0

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KINGS

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Player R A P Webber 11.0 5.0 27.0 Stojakovic 3.7 1.0 20.3 Williams 1.8 7.0 14.5 Anderson 6.3 1.3 14.0 Divac 8.0 1.8 9.8 Delk 1.5 0.8 6.8 Williamson 2.5 1.3 6.5 Pollard 5.3 1.0 4.7 Funderburke 0.3 0.7 4.0 Barry 1.7 1.0. 3.3 Corbin 2.3 1.0 2.7 Martin 1.0 0.5 2.5 Wennington 0.0 0.0 2.0

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