Rice Hopes to Play Through Knee Tendinitis

Forward Glen Rice was suffering from tendinitis in his right knee before and during Monday’s Game 2 defeat to Portland, which might explain the difficulties he had staying in front of Scottie Pippen and why he was limited to 29 minutes, Coach Phil Jackson said Tuesday.

“I think you’re aware that Glen was playing with some problems yesterday physically,” Jackson said. “And we understood that.

“I didn’t put him back in the game after I took him out in the third quarter because it didn’t look like he got started well. . . . I thought he struggled.

“We’ll see how he feels. He’s got three days before [Game 3 in Portland], gives him a chance to feel a lot better, get the swelling down, go out and play.”

Rice confirmed that he had some pain in his right knee, but said he was looking forward to playing full-tilt in Game 3.

“I was on the bench pretty much last night--I can only think it was because Phil was trying to rest my legs a little bit,” Rice said.

“I couldn’t normally slide the way that I’m capable of sliding, even though I’m not the greatest slider of all. I could do a lot better job than I did last night.”

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Jackson, without specifying names, volunteered a shot at the way some of the Trail Blazer players acted in the final moments of Monday’s victory over the Lakers.

“What we remember is the attitude that Portland carried off the floor yesterday,” Jackson said. “They were kind of jackals down there on the bench.

“And we have to remember that when we go back to Portland. I think they might’ve been just a little bit too much so.”

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The Lakers didn’t practice Tuesday, but, on what normally would have been an off-day, dutifully came to their El Segundo practice site to view a film of their 29-point defeat, featuring the eight-point third quarter effort.

The eight points tied a franchise playoff-record for scoring futility.

“We pretty much just wanted to get out of there,” said guard Brian Shaw, who was actually watching it for the second time--he viewed a videotape of the game late Monday.

“I’m just happy that it’s over . . . The only good thing about it is we have a couple days to work on things and it’ll make us really anxious to get back out on the court and better our effort.”

Said Jackson: “You’ve got to get that out of your system. The reason why we came in here just to see it is that we didn’t want to brood on it another day, get it out of our systems.”