Lakers Strive to Keep Edge

These are grand days in El Segundo, where the Lakers are hale and (they believe) prepared and (they’re sure) holding the last two NBA championship trophies, not to mention a 1-0 lead over the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the playoffs.

They spent the last three days dallying in questions of sweeps and three-peats and small lineups versus large, about how they feel and how the Trail Blazers must feel, and what all of this has to do with, oh, Kobe Bryant’s new haircut and sparkling purple earring.

Shaquille O’Neal is no longer running as though he has a sheet of aluminum foil wrapped around his foot, and Bryant mused that if Jerry West were going to Memphis then so would he, and everyone laughed with him, and no one was the least suspicious that this crossed his mind at all.

Of course, one loss, particularly at home, and the whole thing burns down.

The Lakers play the Trail Blazers tonight at Staples Center in Game 2, a juncture apparently more dangerous than previously believed. Game 2s already have meant disaster in top-seeded Sacramento and second-seeded San Antonio, where underdogs Utah and Seattle were winners and now will play host to consecutive games at their places.

“The onus is still on protecting our home floor,” Laker forward Rick Fox said. “Nothing is entitled to us right now. Well, the only thing entitled is the two trophies up in Dr. Buss’ office right now. They can’t take those back.”

As for the top-seeded teams losing, Fox said, “If there’s not enough fair warning, there is now.”

L.A. doesn’t really do angst, primarily because it mixes so poorly with a suntan. So there is a calm that follows the Lakers, from the people who cling to the parking lot gate in El Segundo to those who slouch in the courtside seats, some of the most expensive rental folding chairs in the world. Angst in the first round or two is so 1990s.

The Lakers have identical cool. Shaq wears goofy hats that balance atop his head like a child on a beach ball. Bryant wears sunglasses that don’t keep the sun out. After shaving himself clean a month ago, all of Fox’s head and facial hair is coming in at the same rate, for a look that whispers, “Chia Pet.”

This is how they stand, 14 victories from their third consecutive title, from what has become the standard requirement for passable. They’ve played once in seven days, the eight-point victory in Game 1, and then rested-studied-practiced-analyzed for three days.

Laker Coach Phil Jackson would like to get O’Neal the basketball earlier in the offense and closer to the basket than in Game 1, among other things. Trail Blazer Coach Maurice Cheeks would like to pressure the Lakers harder on defense and go to the rim more aggressively than in Game 1, among other things.

Jackson expects Bonzi Wells and Scottie Pippen to play better than in Game 1. Cheeks expects, well, the same thing, probably.

All of which could happen, and the Lakers could still win. Or, the whole thing could burn down.

“We’re just going to go out there and play,” Bryant said. “We’re the champions. We’re the kings of the hill.”

The Lakers, and Bryant in particular, appear to pull great strength from that. The trickle-down confidence from O’Neal and Bryant runs to Fox and Derek Fisher and Robert Horry and the others.

In a championship era of “Two ... and counting,” a fledgling dynasty, they really are counting, it would seem. They live off the day and feed the season, at least at this time of year, when counting backward from 15 seems a lot less daunting than starting at 82.

“These games are so important,” Fisher said. “It’s almost like each game is just one game, it really isn’t part of a series. It’s one game, then wait three or four days and play another one.”

As a result, however, O’Neal’s arthritic toe is more manageable. He ran in parts of Wednesday’s practice and by the end had a shirt full of sweat. Horry’s abdominal injury appears to be less of a hindrance. The down time is so long, Bryant is trying to add a three-point shot to his game, and now occasionally wins the post-practice shooting contests.

“Shaquille needs as much rest as possible,” Jackson said. “It’s good for us. It’s good for Robert Horry. It’s good for what we’re trying to do as a basketball club. We have some players who have not been through this intense kind of videotape-skull session that we run with the team at this point.”

They have done all of this before, of course. They’ve played and stopped, played and stopped, last year to a 15-1 postseason record, drawn out as it was. Jackson still worries, however. Or, maybe, prepares.

“You lose that competitive edge, that veneer that you have that carries the course of competitive drive,” Jackson said. “The idea that you’re going to go back and remember this team viscerally, and not just by videotape. That you actually know the fear of them and the smell of them and whatever else that has the competitive edge that you want to carry. It’s a long wait.

“Sometimes in the playoffs, in your subconscious, you’re still working things out with your opponent. This gives you a chance to relax a little bit.

“Today’s been a day I felt I had to rebuild that energy toward competition and being ... vigilant and execution conscious.”

Fisher smiled.

“You don’t play the game,” he said, “until the game comes.”

And, so, on they go.

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*--* High Five The Lakers are 4-1 in best-of-five series against Portland: 1989 Lakers win...3-1 1992 Lakers lose...1-3 1997 Lakers win...3-1 1998 Lakers win...3-1 2001 Lakers win...3-0

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