Rice Is Pulling Out All the Stops

Every now and then, Glen Rice drops a hint, or more: Hey, people, you might not see it, but there’s more than a jump-shooter here!

“You know,” he said in March, “I can play a little defense.”

The usual response: Really?

Nobody had even considered the intriguing possibility before this season, especially if you saw him trudge around the court with the Lakers last season.

But now the Lakers can sweep the Sacramento Kings from the playoffs in today’s Game 3 in Arco Arena, and Rice’s defense on small forwards Corliss Williamson and Laker-killer Predrag Stojakovic has been no small part of the lock-down.

Not loud. Not flashy. But crucial to the cause.

The Kings can get big numbers out of Chris Webber and Jason Williams, but if that’s not balanced by steady production and easy baskets from Williamson and Stojakovic, they can go spinning out of control.

Williamson has been a non-factor, and sixth man Stojakovic, an open-floor shooter who averaged 20.3 points against the Lakers in the regular season, has made only two of 12 shots and scored six points in two Laker victories.

So Rice--who scored 18 points in each game--doesn’t have to hint much, at least for now.

“I just think the key is that I try and go out there and pick it up on the defensive end,” he said, “and show that I can play defense.

“I tend to get lost a little bit [in the mix], and I can slip in on the offensive end, maybe get a bucket or two.”

This is interesting talk from Rice, who was richly rewarded and became famous for his picture-perfect jump shot in Miami and Charlotte before he was traded to the Lakers last season.

And it was best if you didn’t expect too much from him other than the few seconds it took for the ball to flick from his hands to the bottom of the net.

But, under Coach Phil Jackson’s express orders, Rice started doing unusual things this season, slowly at first but more and more as the season progressed:

Bending his knees. Sliding his feet. Poking at the ball. Screening out.

Doing it over and over again, not always perfectly, but with far more determination than ever before.

“I don’t think the other teams asked him to,” Ron Harper said of Rice. “This year, we asked him to go out and be a defensive guy.

“I’ve talked to him about what he has to do, how to slide his feet, use his hands; and he’s going out there and he’s doing a fine job with it.

“Phil asks him to play two sides. . . . This series, he’s doing a real great job at it.”

Jackson said that the Kings count on easy baskets from Williamson and Stojakovic to capture the momentum and counter defenses that tilt toward Webber and Williams.

But Stojakovic, in particular, has seemed out of sorts in the series, unable to find open space because of Rice’s aggressive positioning and uninterested in clawing to the basket on his own.

That has left the offense almost wholly in the hands of Williams, Webber and Vlade Divac, and it has not been enough.

“They need those guys,” Harper said of Williamson and Stojakovic.

Said Rice: “I try to go out there and be aggressive on both of them. I know Corliss is a lot stronger than Stojakovic, and I’ve got to use a little more finesse with [Williamson].

“I just go out there and I make sure I keep my eye on both of the guys, try and keep them from doing the things they like doing.”

Later this spring, the Lakers face potential matchups against high-scoring small forwards Rodney Rogers of the Phoenix Suns and Scottie Pippen of the Portland Trail Blazers, which means Rice might be more important to the Lakers as a defender than as a dominant scorer.

In his first days as Laker coach last summer, Jackson went out of his way to point out that Rice clearly was not in shape last season, coming off the lockout and elbow surgery.

By the time he got to the Lakers, Rice was a one-dimensional shooter stuck in an offense that had little movement and zero flexibility. His defense wasn’t pretty, either.

“I think Glen maybe in the past has been a player that plays to the caliber of the [offensive] player he played against, at times,” Jackson said.

“That’s what I challenged him with in the off-season, and also the fact that, because of the way he came in from conditioning last year, he wasn’t moving his feet very well. . . .

“He’s taken the challenge as this team has, and played really good defense for us.”

Jackson said he remembers having to coach the Chicago Bulls against Rice in the playoffs in 1998, when Rice’s shooting was so destructive that Jackson told Pippen, then with the Bulls, to forget about team defense and simply deny Rice.

The main reason Rice has never been on a team that advanced past the second round of the playoffs, Jackson suggested, was that he has always been on teams that depended on him to shoot often and score many points.

This Laker team, with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant both capable of putting up 35-40 points in any given game and with a solid focus on defense, needs the other players only to provide support, and to score when the baskets are available within the framework of the triangle offense.

“Glen is, I think, feeling more comfortable in the offense and inside of that, I think he’s got a better idea of how I want it done, how we are going to try and do it,” Jackson said.

“He’s taking his opportunities with a lot more freedom and a lot more confidence. . . . I don’t know what he’s averaging, 17, 18 points a game for us. . . .

“He’s being very productive out there for us and we feel like he’s having a real good series and he’s going to be one of the keys for us to win.”

MORE NBA

PHOENIX 101, SAN ANTONIO 94

SEATTLE 89, UTAH 78

MIAMI 91, DETROIT 72

INDIANA 109, MILWAUKEE 96

*

MARK HEISLER

With the games so drawn out, the best stories have come on the days in between.

Coverage, Pages 13-14