Seeking Closure

Ron Harper went to work Thursday afternoon in a football jersey, the colors of his beloved Cleveland Browns.

“Basketball season’s about to end,” he said.

When it’s over, he said with a wry smile, whether it’s tonight or sometime next week, “I’ll be on the first thing smoking to Cleveland, Ohio.”

A hard, cranky regular season has given way to a glorious postseason, and so a championship, the Lakers’ second in a row, could be hours away, depending on their spirit of termination and the size of the fight left in the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Lakers lead the best-of-seven NBA Finals, 3-1. Game 5 is tonight at First Union Center.

“I don’t think it’s over,” 76er center Dikembe Mutombo said. “If it was over, I would not leave my bed and my family to come to work this morning.”

By lunchtime Thursday, it still felt close to over. The 76ers talked about summoning more effort than they did the night before, in a 14-point loss in Game 4, and of halting a Laker playoff drive that has reached 14 wins in 15 games, including no losses in seven road games. A Phil Jackson-coached team hasn’t lost three in a row since January 13-18, 1995. A win tonight would make the Lakers the first 15-1 playoff team in NBA history and the first to sweep its road games.

And then what? If they do win their championship, and no team has failed to win the title after leading the Finals by 3-1, what will the Lakers look like by the end of the summer? Eleven weeks ago, they were too slow, too old, too unskilled, and either unwilling to or incapable of playing defense, among many other frailties.

Since then, they are 22-1.

Among the laggardly and aged, Horace Grant, Brian Shaw and Harper have played key, if occasional, roles in the playoffs. Robert Horry again has proved his April-through-June worth. Tyronn Lue played Allen Iverson admirably for four games, and Derek Fisher is no longer dispensable.

“It was a team built for the playoffs, a team built to win,” General Manger Mitch Kupchak said.

When they lost and bickered too often and advanced on the playoffs with so little to suggest they would be on the brink of history two months later, the Laker players expected change. Now they expect to stay together, assuming one win before Philadelphia wins three, with a chance to win it all again.

“In this business, only if you win,” Fisher said. “If we win [one] more game, we’ve earned the right to stay together. If we drop the ball at this point, it goes right back to where we were three months ago--everybody’s up in the air and changes have to be made. That’s life in the NBA, it’s day to day.

“We’ve had some conversations ourselves about where this team is going, what was going to happen if things didn’t turn around--this move, that move, who’d be here, who wouldn’t be here. So, it’s a reality. I’m just glad we have veterans on this team who are realistic about that, and not naive about the fact we have a responsibility and we’re going to be held accountable.

“That’s been the big difference--that early in the year everybody was standing back and saying, ‘OK, work your thing out and we’ll come join later.’ Until all 15 people started holding themselves accountable, we were still searching. Now everybody is contributing and we feel good about that.”

They decided they wanted to keep doing this, playing together, living together, winning basketball games. During the season, conversations arose over dinner, or on an airplane bound for, oh, anywhere, and they decided they would not last as they were. They decided the organization, their careers together, were worth the fight.

“In the past, though, guys didn’t want to leave the Lakers and leave L.A.,” Fisher said. “I think now guys don’t want to leave each other. We could be in any city in the country. But this particular group of guys, we enjoy each other so much, we don’t want to split up.

“Hopefully, if we can complete our mission, Mitch and Kurt [Rambis] and Jerry Buss and Phil will see it that way.”

Harper has said he would like to return next season. If his knees are sound, it would be difficult to envision Jackson letting him go, but the decision could come down to Harper or Shaw. Shaw’s $2.2-million contract only becomes guaranteed on Dec. 1.

“If you win a championship, you should be able to defend it,” Harper said. “The only bad thing about Chicago is, at the end, we didn’t have a chance to. There are still stories. The fans are still mad.”

Jackson has said he would like to add a speedy guard--the bigger the better. Because of rule changes that could promote zone defenses, the club also might add a shooter, the reason Mike Penberthy could return.

After a so-so regular season, Grant was a bit livelier in the playoffs. He would like to return, though Kupchak will weigh that with his wish to develop Mark Madsen and Slava Medvedenko. Kupchak will also consider dozens of free agents, though it’s an ordinary lot outside Mutombo, Chris Webber, Antonio Davis, Michael Finley and Allan Houston. None of those is likely to take the Lakers’ mid-level exception, which will be about $4.5 million.

“To me, one of the biggest impacts made this year is Derek Fisher’s return,” Kupchak said. “He has solidified himself as a starting guard in this league and, more importantly, on this team. With him coming off the bench last year and then the injury this year, and you don’t know about Ron Harper and Brian Shaw, you might say to yourself, ‘My goodness, we really need a guard.’ Now with him coming back, we’ve solidified the position. So now maybe we do something different.”

The Lakers won’t spend with Portland or Dallas or even Phoenix, and they appear on the verge of proving they don’t have to.

“As an organization, you have a responsibility to make prudent financial decisions,” Kupchak said. “If there’s a decision to make that would bring us outside those guidelines, I’m sure our owner will discuss it. Our owner has always done what’s necessary to win.”

They are a win away, again, from a championship, and from a summer of choices.

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