They Will Be Measuring Their Jabs in Game 1

After the drama of the final few games of the first-round victory over Sacramento, and with only a 43-hour turnaround for the Lakers before today’s Game 1 against Phoenix, Coach Phil Jackson said there may be a period of adjustment before this series begins to heat up.

“It’s just going to be a series right now where we’re going to feel each other out this first game,” Jackson said Saturday. “It’s kind of like the first four rounds of a boxing match.”

One thing Jackson stressed was that, although Staples Center was a powerful force in the Lakers’ favor to carry them through the series against the Kings, the team cannot depend on the homecourt advantage all postseason.

“I told them that homecourt advantage is great, it’s important, but we’re not probably going to go unblemished at home the rest of this playoff,” Jackson said.

“We’d love to. But we’ve got to face the fact that we’ve got to win on the road.”

Jackson also acted to extinguish thoughts that the Lakers’ 4-0 regular-season sweep of Phoenix meant that the Suns had little hope in the series.

The Suns upset the defending-champion San Antonio Spurs in the last series, Jackson cautioned, and Phoenix was in every game against the Lakers.

“We’ve had them down by 12, we’ve had them down by 14 points in games, they’ve found a way to come back and make games out of it,” Jackson said.

“We’re going to have to find a way to smother Phoenix in a way that extinguishes the Suns.”

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The one obvious Laker advantage is that Phoenix probably does not have the ability to bang Shaquille O’Neal as effectively as the Kings did.

In the four regular-season meetings, O’Neal, defended by Luc Longley and Oliver Miller, averaged 33.3 points and 14.5 rebounds and made 60% of his field-goal tries.

“They found some defensive resolve against San Antonio,” Jackson said. “They did some things against David Robinson they might feel is effective against us. We have to honor that fact.

“But they have yet to really figure out how to cope with Shaq.”

How does guard Ron Harper handicap the center matchup?

“Luc and Shaq?” Harper said with a teasing wink, referring to his former Bull teammate. “Luc’s going to kick Shaq’s butt.”

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A few of the Laker players acknowledged that they were disappointed that they weren’t able to play the Spurs, who swept the Lakers in last season’s second round.

“Yeah, because it would’ve been a nice challenge,” Kobe Bryant said. “It would’ve been a nice payback, to beat the champions.

“But Phoenix is there, they deserve it, they beat the world champs. So we have to take it out on them.”

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A team spokesman confirmed that the New Jersey Nets have requested and received permission from the Lakers to talk with General Manager Mitch Kupchak about their front-office vacancies.

Kupchak, a native New Yorker, had no comment, but is believed to have already at least had preliminary discussions with Net ownership.