LOOKING FORWARD

In the early, sweaty days of this season, all Robert Horry heard was a roaring voice, and all he knew was that his teammates were thanking the basketball gods that they weren’t him.

Why did Phil Jackson pick the usually amiable Horry to be a lightning rod for his most bellicose bolts during October’s training camp?

Was it to prepare the lanky power forward--and the Lakers--for something as demanding as this first-round matchup with Chris Webber and the Sacramento Kings, which finally resumes with Game 2 tonight?

Maybe only Horace Grant and Toni Kukoc--two previous recipients of Jackson’s most authoritative attentions--can truly understand the nuance of the relationship, and the need to answer Jackson with high-quality effort.

These days, with Horry established as one of the Lakers’ crucial performers in a potential title-winning season, Horry glances back at the grueling days in Santa Barbara with some perspective.

“Everybody every day was like, ‘Why’s he on you?’ ” Horry said. “I was like, ‘I don’t know.’

“He was on me from the day we walked in the door.”

At the same time, Jackson also was saying Horry was the key to the season, that if he could get Horry to snap back from several blah years with the Lakers, Horry might be an electrifying presence--a key inside defender, an athletic finisher and an offensive threat.

After two-plus seasons of declining production, which reached an apex last season when then-Laker coach Kurt Rambis held Horry out of several games, Jackson was daring Horry to return to the form that helped the Houston Rockets to the 1994 and 1995 NBA titles.

Of course, Jackson didn’t exactly explain it that way during camp. He screamed that Horry wasn’t doing the drills correctly and he yelled that maybe Horry’s mind wasn’t into it.

Commiseration by former Bulls Ron Harper and John Salley, Horry said, could only go so far.

“Sall and Harp were telling me, that’s just the way he tries to get guys involved, get them to concentrate,” Horry said. “He kind of points those guys out because he knows those guys are going to be key aspects of the team.

“They kept telling me that, but I was like, ‘OK, just tell him to tell me.’ ”

Shaquille O’Neal said Jackson quickly discovered that Horry had the makeup to take the public scoldings.

“Phil knows all the players around the league, so I guess Phil knows who he can get on and who he can’t get on,” O’Neal said. “Rob’s a tough guy. I’m sure he had it in Houston with Rudy [Tomjanovich]. I know he had it in college [at Alabama] with Wimp Sanderson.”

Jackson said that part of it was knowing that the Lakers were in deep need of a big body to help O’Neal inside (and knowing that Horry and starter A.C. Green were undersized power forwards), part of it was wondering if Horry’s balky knees would hold up over a season, and part of it was Horry’s sometimes-flippant disposition.

“He’s not easily readable for me,” Jackson said. “[He is] a player that carries a lot of his emotions beneath the surface and yet on the court he’s a very emotional player.”

And part of it, of course, was that Horry, semi-famous for tossing a towel in disgust at Coach Danny Ainge when Horry was a Phoenix Sun, was a good foil.

“He really likes Robert,” assistant coach Frank Hamblen said of Jackson. “And Robert has really responded, really helps us a great deal. I know he kind of used Toni in Chicago as the guy. And he’s very good at bringing guys back [from being criticized].”

Horry said Jackson began backing away in November, when Horry laughingly suggests that Jackson realized he wasn’t responding to it.

“He picked some other people out to yell at,” Horry said with a smile.

Others said Horry responded in the best way--by playing better. Horry broke his nose in mid-January and played for several weeks with a mask, which limited his vision and his freedom.

Once he discarded the mask in February, Horry started playing with more fire and more offensive authority, even if the numbers don’t show a dramatic rise. He upped his scoring average from 4.9 at the end of January to 5.7 at the end of the season.

But he also started shooting, and making, three-point shots regularly for the first time in his Laker career.

Horry made only six three-point shots in 29 attempts in 38 games through Jan. 30. In the 38 games after that, Horry was 23 for 65, making only 16 fewer three-point shots in that span than he had in his previous two Laker seasons.

“One of the first things he ever said to me was, ‘I’ve seen your game. The last couple of years, it’s been slipping. I want to get it back the way you had it before you left Houston,’ ” Horry said.

Horry, 29, said Jackson’s triangle offense, which features quick, patterned cuts and movement around O’Neal, instead of dump-in passes and standing around waiting for something to happen, has reinvigorated his game.

“Our offense [before this season] stunk, plain and simple,” Horry said. “Not mine. The offense we ran stunk. The system stunk. Because all you did was stick the [power forward] out in the corner, stand out here, get your man out of the way, crash the boards.

“I’m not a [Dennis] Rodman. That’s not my game.”

But when he’s counted on for the majority of minutes at power forward, against a player as potentially dominating as Webber, Horry said he is still used to being considered a Laker weakness.

For example, Webber scored 28 points in Game 1, but also drew two fouls after getting tangled with Horry, leading to his fouling out in the fourth quarter; meanwhile, Horry made back-to-back three-point shots in the crucial Laker third-quarter run.

“I’ve been losing matchups forever, from back when I first got into the league,” Horry said. “I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a ‘plus’ on my side [in pre-series analyses].

“I’ve never had the advantage, but I’ll say this, I’ve come out on top more than I have on the bottom.”

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Horry Factor

How Robert Horry’s regular-season statistics compare to his numbers in the Lakers’ first playoff game:

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Season Playoffs Points 5.7 8 Rebounds 4.8 1 Assists 1.6 2 Blocks 1.1 2

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DOC IS MAGIC

A .500 season gives Rivers edge over Jackson in coach-of-the-year voting. Page 5

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PISTON PROBLEM

Grant Hill’s season is over after breaking an ankle against the Heat. Page 4

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TRAIL BLAZERS: 86

TIMBERWOLVES: 82

KNICKS: 84

RAPTORS: 83

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