NBA OKs Win, Jackson Doesn’t

Phil Jackson was angry Tuesday.

First, he called a meeting after practice. It included any Laker who had played at least 20 minutes Monday night and, according to some of those players, the coach gave them a good going over.

When he met with reporters, he said, “Hope you enjoyed spending time with the players. That’s all I have to say.”

And he walked away.

This on the day after a Laker victory.

No Laker was complaining about the victory, however. That was left to the Vancouver Grizzlies, who figured they’d been robbed.

What irked Jackson was the way his team played, particularly on defense.

What irked the Grizzlies was that the officials ruled a late shot by Shaquille O’Neal was good, giving the Lakers a one-point overtime victory.

O’Neal clearly did not get the shot away before time ran out. But referee Leon Wood ruled that Vancouver’s Ike Austin had fouled O’Neal, raking his hand across his face, before time expired, and awarded O’Neal the basket.

In fact, Wood put four-tenths of a second back on the clock, and sent O’Neal to the line. O’Neal missed the free throw, but it didn’t matter.

The NBA said Tuesday that the officials had been right.

“The officials made the proper call,” said Stu Jackson, NBA senior vice president of baseball operations. “The clock should stop when the player is fouled, so it was the correct decision to reset it. Since O’Neal was fouled with time left in the game while he was shooting, the basket counts.”

The applicable rule is covered in the game clock section of the official NBA rule book under Rule 5, Section V.

Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak said, “My understanding of the rules, without reading the rule book, while not the prettiest of wins, it was the correct call. I have looked at the tape. It appears to me there were about two-tenths of a second left when Austin raked his hand over Shaq’s face.”

Consultant Jerry West, who attended Tuesday’s practice, also said it was a correct call.

The NBA also announced that Grizzly forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim had been fined $10,000 for criticizing the officials after the game.

“That was a terrible, terrible, terrible call by three cowards,” he said. “You could see it was wrong. A terrible call. I can’t use anything but ‘gutless’ and ‘coward.’ ”

Apparently of less concern was this from Grizzly Coach Sidney Lowe: “I’m mad, I’m [ticked] off. . . . We won the ballgame and it was basically taken from us. Let the team that deserved to win win the ballgame, as opposed to the team that everyone thought should win, even the officials.”

Jackson apparently didn’t think the Lakers deserved to win.

He was not happy about the Lakers blowing a 13-point lead to one of the worst teams in the Western Conference, being extended to overtime, and then winning on a last-second, controversial shot.

The closeness of the game couldn’t be blamed on O’Neal or Kobe Bryant. They did what they were supposed to do. O’Neal had 31 points and Bryant was passing the ball. Bryant had the first triple double of his career--26 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.

O’Neal still isn’t talking to reporters.

Bryant said not to look for more triple doubles.

“Not in this offense,” he said, adding it would take a summer of work to change things so he could get more of them.

But Monday night’s triple double might indicate that the feud between him and O’Neal is fizzling, even though Bryant, when asked if his teammates appreciated his increased passing, smiled and said, “No, not really.”

It appears the Lakers now have other concerns.

Bryant said Jackson had told them that “mentally and physically we’re not sustaining intensity.”

Said Kupchak: “The statistics, at first glance, tell you scoring is not the problem. But we’re not as good defensively as we were last year. You can over-analyze this, but defensively we’re not giving forth the effort we did last year.”

The Lakers rank first in the league in scoring, averaging 101.5 points a game. They rank 25th in defense, giving up 97.9 points. The league average is 93.9 points a game.

Brian Shaw said one thing that might help is to come out earlier for the second half and warm up better.

“We seem to be stiff and flat at the start of the second half,” he said. “We also need to be more focused.”

Shaw said Jackson would have more to say if the Lakers don’t start playing better.

“He wants us to figure it out on our own, and if we don’t, then he’s going to become a dictator and start pulling players out of the game,” Shaw said.

Horace Grant said, “As a team, we’re not taking pride in team defense. Why not? Well, that’s the million-dollar question.”

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BUCKS 112, CLIPPERS 91

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