Jackson Gets Their Attention

Before Sunday’s game, Laker Coach Phil Jackson said he was no longer giving his team days off from practice.

Not after long overtime games the day before. Not after long trips. Never.

“We can’t afford it until they show me they deserve it,” Jackson said. “Their focus is not very good. They would end up getting disintegrated. They don’t have a long attention span.”

Will Jackson stick to his edict?

The Lakers themselves will decide that by their attention span in the days ahead. It’s another motivational tool by Jackson to try and keep a two-time defending NBA champion interested during the dog days of a seemingly endless regular season.

Either way, figure the Lakers’ attention span will significantly increase the day the postseason begins.

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It sounded as if it came as a revelation to the New York Knicks’ Kurt Thomas.

“He is a big fella,” he said of Shaquille O’Neal after Sunday’s game.

Especially if you are a converted center giving away four inches and about 100 pounds to the man you are defending.

“It was tough out there,” said Thomas, a natural forward filling in for injured center Marcus Camby. “I just tried to go out there and do the best that I could. My teammates came down and tried to help me out, double-team him as much as possible.

“He was hitting the turnaround shots. That is pretty much what we wanted him to do, shoot the turnaround.”

But not to make 12 of 22 from the field as O’Neal did Sunday.

“Guys are reluctant to overextend themselves out on the ball for fear of getting beat,” said Knick Coach Don Chaney, the frustration obvious in his voice. “And there’s no help behind them. Once again we come to the trust factor. We’ve always as a team had a problem guarding the ball defensively. We’ve always relied on help behind us, and Marcus was the key.”

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Unbeaten through three games on this trip, the Lakers still have the two toughest teams ahead, the Milwaukee Bucks Tuesday and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday.