Responses Mixed to Long Break

So now, the pause.

A day after their 117-107 victory over the Sacramento Kings in Game 1 of the best-of-five first-round series, the Lakers held a light workout on Monday and planned normal practices for today and Wednesday before eventually getting to Thursday’s Game 2.

Not exactly the perfect way to build momentum for a big postseason push.

“It’s a big bummer,” forward Robert Horry said. “[In] the playoffs, most of the time, you get a game, you’re playing good, keep playing. . . .

“To take this many days off, the competition level drops. You’re so anxious to get out there and play a game, it hurts you, at times.

“But hopefully the only thing it’ll do is make us better, because there’s still a lot of stuff that the coaches are throwing in to make us a better team, gives us more of a learning period.”

Other Lakers said the Kings probably have it worse--they have to sit out the break on a losing note, knowing that a Game 2 loss would push them to the brink of elimination.

And Shaquille O’Neal slumped on a bench and said he looked forward to the downtime.

“It’s good, especially for me,” O’Neal said. “I can take some time.”

Coach Phil Jackson said he would try to make the most of the two days of practice, saying that, even in victory, there were plenty of areas to tighten for the Lakers heading into Game 2 and the rest of the playoffs.

“I think we can do a lot of readjustment,” Jackson said. “I think we can take another look at what we did yesterday and go from there.

“I think there’s a lot of learning [to do] . . . a higher efficiency that we can do out there on the court both offensively and defensively.”

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If you control the offensive glass, you stop anybody’s fastbreak, Jackson said, and that’s exactly what happened to the Kings’ breakneck offense on Sunday.

The Lakers grabbed 25 offensive rebounds in Game 1, earning key points with extra possessions and eventually forcing the Kings to commit more people to defensive rebounding, which slowed down the tempo.

“When you rebound like we rebounded . . . it really hurts a basketball club,” Jackson said. “They can’t get out and run when you’re getting so many second attempts.

“This team wants to leak out early and get out and run, and that’s been our emphasis and that’s been our best deterrent to their fastbreak so far.”

The key element of the rebounding attack? The big Laker guards, who sliced to the hoop when their King counterparts wandered downcourt anticipating a fastbreak.

“Brian Shaw and Kobe [Bryant] and [Ron] Harper are real good rebounders,” Jackson said.

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History report: In the 13 previous times the Lakers have won Game 1 of a five-game series, they have ended up losing only one, in 1993 to Phoenix when the Suns won the last three games after losing the first two. The Lakers have pulled off three-game sweeps seven times, but have won in four games in each of the last three seasons after winning Game 1.

Injury report: Travis Knight, suffering from flu, missed the workout. Derek Fisher, back from a stint on the injured list because of a bone spur, said he felt fine in Game 1.