Panic Time Comes Early for the Woeful Clippers

It’s a bad season in which nothing good happens for anyone but this one wasn’t working out so well around here, where the local teams went three games before anyone won and then, let’s face it, only after they played each other.

And the lucky club is ... the Lakers?

Yes, by a 108-93 score, your three-time defending NBA champions finally got into the win column Friday night, just as Coach Phil Jackson said they would. Well, sooner or later.

Or as he put it before the game:

“We think we’re going to win a game or two here, somewhere along the line.”

This may seem like a modest prediction, but anyone who saw Tuesday’s opening loss to the Spurs might have wondered if they’d win before Thanksgiving, or at least before Shaquille O’Neal returned.

Jackson, himself, had been joking (or not) about starting 0-7, 1-6 or 2-5. With Sacramento off to a fast start, without Mike Bibby and Chris Webber, this might have meant the Lakers could have found themselves five, six or seven games out of first place.

Of course, Alvin Gentry would kill for Phil Jackson’s problems.

The Clipper coach has a roster full of upcoming free agents who were knocked off their heretofore-optimistic stride when owner Donald T. Sterling refrained from re-signing any of them this summer.

Speculation that it might get into their young heads was hardly refuted by their opener, which they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers, a feat thought impossible beforehand.

As former Raider Coach Tom Flores once said, it’s still early but it’s getting late ... fast. The Clippers have to win some games soon, to begin to generate some positive momentum before their contract situation eats them up and Gentry knows it.

“I think we almost have to,” he said before the game. “Obviously, as a consequence of what’s going on, we need to keep it real positive here so all of a sudden, we don’t have any fragmentation.

“Because I think it’s going to be easy to fragment if guys start thinking about individual things, rather than team goals. I think we need to try to find a way to get off to a positive start.”

They’re still looking.

On top of everything, the Clippers barely had a preseason, with three starters, Elton Brand, Michael Olowokandi and Quentin Richardson, hurt and missing most of it.

Now everyone’s on their feet, sort of, and playing, as best they can.

Playing together, which is important if they’re ever going to defend anybody (so far, they’re giving up 103 a game), remains a problem, however.

“We just got off to such a bad start,” said Gentry afterward. “

And on top of all that, there was the Laker controversy du jour, with Tex Winter calling Kobe Bryant selfish, untrue to the triangle, etc., in ESPN.com., or in other words, much of the same stuff Tex used to tell Michael Jordan.

Bryant is actually a changed young man. You could tell from the opener in which he took 29 shots, missed 20 ... and later apologized for shooting so often.

Two years ago, if anyone had asked him about taking 29 shots, he’d have said, “So?”

At the moment, however, the Lakers have a peculiar situation on their hands, with O’Neal and Rick Fox out. To whom do you want Bryant to throw the ball, one of the Samaki twins, Samaki Walker or Soumaila Samake?

Of course, Winter is an equal-opportunity acerbic, who also sometimes tells the laid-back Jackson it’s time to uncross his legs and start coaching, so no one in Lakerdom got too excited. The net result of this was to fire up Bryant even more than he usually is. After explaining he had no problem with Tex, etc., he went out and did a major destructo on Corey Maggette, Quentin Richardson and every other Clipper who got close to him.

“The bottom line, it was just a totally dominating performance by Kobe,” said Gentry. “I just think he controlled the game from start to finish.”

Given the depth of Bryant’s passion and that of the Clippers’ funk, it was a bigger mismatch than usual. Kobe had 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the first quarter, which projects to 48-36-20 over a full game, but settled for 33-15-12.

Good thing he’s not more coachable, or he’d really be something.

Or maybe Gentry should hire Tex and have him talk to his players, or to Donald T. Sterling. In Clipperdom, it’s already crunch time.