These Lakers Still Waiting for Turnaround

There they were, going into another pivotal game without Kobe Bryant, although it wasn’t like the Lakers couldn’t see a ray of sunlight.

“He did come out on the court,” said Phil Jackson, noting the extent of Bryant’s participation in the morning shoot-around.

OK, so it was an extremely faint ray of sunlight but these days the Lakers look more like longshots than defending champions, even if they can still rise to the occasional occasion as they did Tuesday night in the Delta Center.

Of course, it took an incredible effort from their reserves, who recently went four games without once combining for 20 points. Tuesday the reserves were without J.R. Rider (although by now they’re used to that) and had 21 by halftime. They wound up making 12 of 19 shots, seven of 10 three-pointers, and outscored the Jazz subs, 38-19.

Of such little turnarounds must the big turnaround the Lakers are still hoping for be manufactured, but nothing’s coming easily . . .

Everywhere they go, there’s the whiff of controversy in the air. Even if nothing is going on, it seems like there is, or should be.

Before Tuesday’s game, TNT’s Craig Sager told Jackson he’d just read his new book, “More Than a Game,” but he wasn’t there to get it autographed.

Sager: “Why the open criticism this time of the year about the Kobe-Shaq situation, about Kobe in particular being selfish?”

Jackson: “That wasn’t criticism.”

Sager: “What was the message then?”

Jackson: “The message is, this has been an ongoing situation that this team got over, found harmony, played to a championship level last year. [It’s] surmountable. It’s not criticism, it’s example.”

Sager: “At this time of year, though, the playoffs, is this going to be good or bad?”

Jackson, grinning as beatifically as a Buddha, now that he had a softball to belt out of the park: “Wonderful! It’ll be wonderful for this team. I hope they read it. I’ll give them the book.”

Actually, after Bryant’s comments in ESPN The Magazine, and Shaquille O’Neal’s comments in his ensuing month of rage, and Jackson’s recent comments about Bryant in the Chicago Sun-Times, Jackson’s book was pretty tame in the controversy department.

It may not look good for Jackson, though, to hawk his book everywhere while otherwise proclaiming the sanctity of his dressing room, but as far as Kobe and Shaq were concerned, it was no biggie.

Of course, before the next spate of books, magazine articles, snits, etc., there’s the little matter of this season to conclude, with Bryant trying to get well, Jackson hoping to salvage home-court advantage against someone and O’Neal trying to hold the fort.

The fort was in trouble in the first quarter when Shaq picked up two fast fouls. Greg Foster, who played here, entered, to boos, although after the season he has had, Foster may have been relieved that someone knew he was still alive.

Similarly, O’Neal got in foul trouble in the second and third quarters, after which he’d come out and Robert Horry and Mike Penberthy would start making three-point shots, infuriating Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan.

This definitely wasn’t Sloan’s night. In the second quarter, he had to watch Shaq knock down John Stockton off the ball, with no call and, worse, no retaliation.

If Sloan were still playing, many Lakers would have paid but this is a new time and Sloan hates it.

“I don’t think we were involved in playoff basketball,” Sloan said afterward, sneering at a question about how hotly the game was contested.

“Shaq knocked John Stockton down and everybody stood there and watched it. If you’re going to let somebody knock your little guy down, we don’t deserve to win that game. . . .

“I mean . . . John Stockton’s like a CBA guy who just got here on a 10-day contract, the way the game is played today.”

Sloan left early, ejected with 1:11 to play after the Lakers blew open an 86-84 game, taking a 92-84 lead, and he spotted referee Ted Bernhardt at the other end of the floor, joking with someone on the Laker bench.

Unable to get close enough to Bernhardt, Sloan went after another ref, Monty McCutchen, who tossed him.

Everyone has problems. The Jazz is struggling, as it often does late in seasons when its old legs tire and everybody else starts to play as hard as its players always do.

The Lakers live to fight another night, hopefully with Bryant back and, who knows, maybe with everyone on the same side, for a change.