Jackson Is Now Officially Upset

After he gave the Lakers a day off, Coach Phil Jackson took center stage Tuesday and didn’t disappoint.

Minutes after watching tape of Sacramento’s 96-90 Game 2 victory, which tied the Western Conference finals at 1-1, Jackson immediately questioned how the series is being officiated.

“It was pretty obvious that Sacramento came out the aggressor, but I don’t know if that type of aggressiveness should be rewarded,” Jackson said Tuesday at the Lakers’ HealthSouth training facility in El Segundo. “[Chris] Webber flailing around with his arms, hitting guys in the face and head, is not right.”

Bernie Fryer, Joe DeRosa and Eddie F. Rush officiated Monday’s game, and even though Jackson didn’t exactly say they were responsible for the Lakers’ first road playoff defeat in almost two years, he came close.

“You have to give some latitude to referees being in an environment like [Sacramento’s Arco Arena],” Jackson said with a mixture of sincerity and sarcasm. “There is always a question as to what type of a group [of officials] that you send to a situation like Sacramento, where it is a bandbox with intense pressures. I’m sure we’re going to see a stronger crew in L.A. where the noise and pressure in our building is so much more intense than Sacramento.”

After Game 2, many of the Lakers claimed that they were taken out of their game because of the early fouls they were assessed. Sacramento attempted 23 free throws in the first half compared with five by the Lakers.

No one was more vocal than center Shaquille O’Neal, who finished with 35 points and 12 rebounds despite playing most of the game in foul trouble.

“We had a player on his way to a 50-point game, which he is very capable of getting [based on] years against Sacramento,” Jackson said about O’Neal, who had 23 points and three fouls in the first half Monday. “He was completely taken out of his game in the process of making foul calls. We’ve talked about [picking up questionable fouls], and he knows that it’s going to happen and likely to happen up there.”

What bothers Jackson is the perceived double standard for O’Neal.

“We had five fouls called on us against Webber [in Game 2], who was just posting up,” Jackson said. “Shaq doesn’t even get those calls. What the league sends out as trailers on what they say will be called in the playoffs are not even called against Shaq. The rules get changed or requalified because of [Shaq]’s size, but that’s no excuse.”

But instead of making a video to point out the disparity, as some NBA coaches have done, Jackson tries to get the Laker center to understand that it’s all part of the game.

“When I go in the video room with Shaq, I tell him, ‘They are going to call the game differently because of you and you’re going to have to withstand it. Take it and stand above it,’” Jackson said.

Another part of the game in which Jackson wants to see improvement when the Lakers will return to practice today is three-point shooting. Los Angeles made only three of 19 attempts from behind the arc in Game 2, but the misses don’t upset the Laker coach.

“Three-point shooting comes and goes. That’s pretty natural,” Jackson said. “I tell them that they cannot live by this shot. You have to shoot it out of rhythm.”

After the Lakers launched three consecutive three-point attempts on three trips down the court in the first quarter, Jackson called a timeout and told his players that they could not win that way. But his team kept shooting from long range until the Laker coaching staff firmly told them at the start of the fourth quarter to back off.

“Our three-point shooting was pathetic,” Jackson said.