Jackson Keeps His Verbal Spurs On

At the end of four games in five days, Team Asterisk awaits.

It was Phil Jackson who once wondered if San Antonio shouldn’t have an asterisk next to its lockout-shortened 1999 championship, and Jackson who grinned Tuesday night and said, “Well, they proved me right, didn’t they?”

A week and a half into the defense of their championship, the Lakers play their third statement game, tonight against the Spurs. They played Portland on opening night and Utah a day later.

“We thought last year that we’d have to go through them, but they couldn’t get through the 82-game season,” Jackson said, referring to Tim Duncan’s knee injury and San Antonio’s subsequent first-round loss to Phoenix. “We were planning on that as a matchup possibility. They are yet a team that is very competent, very precise about how they want to attack us. They’ve got the tools and the weapons to do it.”

Jackson said it is far too soon to establish anything in the way of a psychological edge.

“Early in the year, there are so many things you go through in an 82-game season, you’re trying to come to terms with your own self,” he said. “You’re playing against yourself a lot early, trying to build consistency and rhythm and a routine of how you play.”

The Spurs probably won’t forget the asterisk thing.

“They’re a competent and capable team,” Rick Fox said. “You kind of forget they know how to be a potent basketball team.

“I hope we don’t go in there and get knocked over the head.”

*

The Lakers sent championship rings to New York by overnight mail Tuesday, meaning Glen Rice and Travis Knight should have them today, when the Knicks return from Milwaukee.

Rice was getting antsy for his jewelry. “All I’m looking at is my wedding ring,” he told the New York Post.

The club has not yet contacted A.C. Green regarding his ring, though his should be sent to Miami soon.

If Rice and Knight are agreeable, the Lakers will conduct a brief center-court ceremony at Staples Center on April 1, shortly before the Knicks play the Lakers. The Heat comes to Staples Center on Jan. 21, when Green could be recognized for his contribution.

*

Though time appears to be running out, the Lakers hope to celebrate their NBA championship at the White House.

Club and White House officials are trying to schedule a date in December, before the conclusion of the Clinton administration.

TONIGHT

at San Antonio, 5 PST

Channel 9, TNT

* Site--Alamodome

* Radio--KLAC (570)

* Records--Lakers 3-2, Spurs 3-1.

* Record vs. Spurs (1999-2000)--1-3.

* Update--San Antonio never reached the second-round playoff series against the Lakers last season. Tim Duncan’s knee injury meant a first-round loss for the Spurs, who’d eliminated the Lakers in a four-game sweep the season before. Duncan is sound again and joins David Robinson as the most effective low-post double-team in the league. Laker forward Robert Horry suffered a muscle strain in his neck against the Rockets and left the game in the fourth quarter. He is day to day.