Horry Is Ready for the Ultimate Power Trip

Chris Webber, beginning today. Tim Duncan, possibly, in Round 2. Rasheed Wallace or Karl Malone or Kevin Garnett if they get to Round 3.

So, how exactly is the Laker power-forward tandem of A.C. Green and Robert Horry going to match up with this gantlet of super-power forwards in the playoffs?

“Basically just take a tape of what I said last year,” said Horry, who has been hearing the same questions for all of his four Laker seasons. “You can use it over and over.

“Those guys are all great players. They’re going to get their points. . . . It’s up to us to try to do as much as we can to try to equalize them.”

Sacramento’s Webber has been a particular thorn in the side of the Lakers this season, averaging 27 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in four games and outracing the Laker power forwards up and down the court.

Webber, said Laker guard Kobe Bryant, is the “heart and soul” of the Kings--or least has been in all four nerve-rattling games against the Lakers.

“Each game, Webber has come out hot,” said Horry, who comes off the bench but averaged six more minutes than Green in games against the Kings. “I think if we can just start on him and keep him at bay, don’t let him come out hot like he usually does, that makes it easier for everybody else. . . .

“He’s their Shaq [O’Neal]. Shaq does that for us, he does it for them.”

The key, Green said, is to make sure Webber, however many points he gets, doesn’t trigger the offense for the rest of the up-and-down King players.

“Let him score, you know? Just keep everybody else down,” Green said. “You know certain guys are going to score. Their offense rotates around certain guys. It’s the other guys who can really put a nail in you.”

Laker Coach Phil Jackson concurred, saying he didn’t want to see Nick Anderson, Vlade Divac, Jason Williams, Predrag Stojakovic and the other Sacramento scorers strafing the Lakers.

“I think if you spoke to [Sacramento Coach] Rick Adelman right at this moment, Rick would tell you they probably don’t want [Webber] to score 35 points,” Jackson said. “But they’d sure like 15 rebounds and 10 assists.

“He is a player who plays all aspects of the game and they run their offense through him.”

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One way to try to minimize Webber’s impact, Horry said, is to make him play defense, because most of the time Webber pays little attention to his man and leans in the direction of O’Neal.

“A.C. is actually a better spot-up shooter than I am,” Horry said. “So I think it’s up to him to come out first, make Webber be conscious of the [power forward]. Because he likes to play a lot of illegal defense, which the refs don’t call. . . .

“It’s true, you can look at every tape--he doesn’t play defense on the [Laker power forwards], and when we do get him in a situation that he’s supposed to be illegal, they don’t get illegals.

“They need to really call it. Call it once, you don’t have to worry about it anymore, because he’ll have to step up. He’s in the middle of the paint, under the basket the whole time.”

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The Lakers announced they have released a limited number of Game 1 tickets, which will be available for purchase through Ticketmaster or at the box office at Staples Center this morning.