Missing Person, but No Panic

The Lakers were not aware of the extent of Kobe Bryant’s injury until halftime, but even then there was not much outward reaction, guard Derek Fisher said.

“It’s more a feeling you have as a player when one of your guys is out,” Fisher said. “Not a lot has to be said because everybody understands the situation. You just focus on doing your job, and when everybody does that, we’re OK.”

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Bryant will be missed on both ends, of course, as the team’s second-leading scorer and most consistently energized defender.

But Fisher said Bryant will also be missed in one other big facet.

“His rebounding is big,” Fisher said. “If you give the Pacers second shots, they make you pay with threes, not twos.”

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The Lakers were on the wrong side of an extended third-quarter scoring run and Phil Jackson did not call a timeout to stop the momentum. Again.

It happened with a 20-0 charge by the Trail Blazers in Game 2 of the conference finals and it happened with the 17-4 rally by the Pacers in Game 1 of the championship series, Jackson either leaving his Lakers out to take their lumps and learn a lesson or forcing them to figure a way out of the mess on their own.

“Phil has his way of conducting his game plan,” forward Rick Fox said. “It’s something you’ve seen him do before. He wants us to find a way to get out of the hole. Sometimes, we know what it is that got us there and we should be able to fix it at this point in time. Fortunately we did that [Wednesday].”

Wednesday, the Pacers got within two points with their surge, 71-69. They trailed by six when a timeout finally came, a stoppage for TV purposes that Jackson said he was waiting for.

“I was just absorbing it,” Jackson said. “I thought we absorbed it pretty well.”

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Fox stepped in to score 11 points in Game 1, and Jackson said that Fox’s reemergence after a postseason slump might have revitalized the Laker bench.

“We’re just happy that Rick Fox got back in the flow of the game Wednesday,” Jackson said. “We need his shooting; we need his ability to give us punch off the bench.”

Jackson suggested that Fox, who had six points in Game 2, has recently come under scrutiny from referees, especially after he was thrown out of Game 4 against Phoenix in the second round after two intentional fouls on Cliff Robinson.

“He started a couple, two, three games, he had to start this year and has done very well,” Jackson said of Fox. “We know that he still has that ability in him as a starter. But the bench sequence, you know, grasping the intensity the game is being played at, incorporating it, coming out and finding out where to fit in the floor without making your presence felt in a negative way, which seems to have been Rick’s problem recently.

“The referees have his number tattooed on their brain, and he’s getting warnings without really deserving them in some part. I think the incident in Phoenix alerted the crews. Now they have his name, kind of stamped in the forefront.”

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Laker wives were upset after learning Thursday that they would not be allowed to join their husbands in Indianapolis for Game 3.

Jackson had originally said that the wives, barred from the road throughout the season, would be allowed to attend away games in the finals, only to change his mind after travel plans were made.

Jackson now says the wives can come east on Tuesday and attend Game 4.

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“We’ve played without him before. This is no mystery to us.”

PHIL JACKSON

on Kobe Bryant

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“He was peaked and ready for this game. He brought a lot to it.”

JACKSON

on Ron Harper

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“He shifted back into Cleveland mode tonight.”

KOBE BRYANT

on Harper

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“There was just pain. Just flat-out pain.”

BRYANT

on his injury