Winter Is Confident About Shooting

He has been playing it or coaching it or thinking about it for some 60 years, so assistant Tex Winter knows an out-of-round triangle when he sees one.

While the Laker offense has been better, Winter, who will be 80 in February, has seen worse. He is soothed by the 18-3 record, even if it has as much to do with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant playing well together as with the system.

O’Neal is their scoring leader and Bryant is their assist leader and they are outscoring teams by about 10 points a game, so the anxiety is fairly low for the guy who has seen it all.

“I’m certainly not unhappy with the 18-3,” Winter said. “But I think we’re capable of playing better. To a man they’d all agree to that.”

Replaced on the bench this season by Kurt Rambis, Winter has maintained his high profile in practices. He won’t take all of the trips, and while he initially was disappointed, he seems to have warmed to the idea of fewer airports and silverware in plastic bags.

This could be the year he is voted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, years late in the opinion of many basketball people.

Meantime, the Laker jump shooters aren’t shooting particularly well, and Coach Phil Jackson believes it is because the timing of the offense is off. Winter agrees, but also sees plenty of open shots out there.

“I think in the long season you have in the NBA you’re going to have players that are shooting well at times and, at times, you can’t buy a basket,” he said. “It’ll come back if they’re good shooters, if they are fundamentally sound on their shots and, if they are shooting it out of rhythm, they’re not forcing it. If they’re not taking shots outside of the context of the offense, it’ll come back.”

Asked recently if he believed the Lakers had the shooters to keep defenses off O’Neal, Jackson said, “I hope so.” Winter said he is sure of it.

“[Derek] Fisher, as he goes along, he might miss six in a row. Next thing, he might hit six in a row,” Winter said. “[Robert] Horry, if he looks for his shots and gets them ‘on catch,’ because he’s a catch-and-shoot player, instead of jacking around with the ball too much, he’ll hit some shots. [Rick] Fox is kind of a paradox, because I don’t think he’s looking for his shot enough, and consequently he has an opportunity to take some shots he passes up. Then all of a sudden when he gets one he doesn’t pass up he’s not ready to shoot.”

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The Lakers rank 25th in the league in three-point percentage and don’t have a three-point shooter in the league’s top 40. Fox and Lindsey Hunter are tied for 47th at 36.8%.

The club ranked 20th last year, then added shooters Hunter and Mitch Richmond to foil the zones. Hunter has been streaky and Richmond rarely gets off the bench.

Fox, in particular, has appeared unwilling to shoot, or at least surprised when the chances come.

“His concentration is so much on the context of the offense, trying to involve his teammates a little too much,” Winter said. “Yet, it’s healthy. It’s good, because he’s definitely a team player. He thinks it’s important these guys play together. Maybe too much. He may be too conscious of that.”

Guilty, Fox said.

“We don’t need to be hot,” he said. “We need to execute our offense. You’ve been here long enough, you know that about this system. When you’re new to it, you’re so used to having a play called for you, so you’re still getting X amount of shots so you can shoot your way into a rhythm. But we don’t play like that.”

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The Lakers fly to Houston this afternoon after a morning practice.... Bryant made 19 of 30 shots against the Clippers and Golden State. In two games against Golden State, he is 21 of 26 from the floor.... O’Neal’s field-goal and free-throw percentages continue to go in opposite directions. In December, he is shooting 63.5% from the floor. Before Tuesday night’s games, he was ranked second in the league in field-goal percentage, at 56.6%, behind Utah’s Donyell Marshall. O’Neal has led the league in field-goal percentage for four years running. He has also missed 52 of his last 88 free throws, dropping his season percentage to 49.3.