Just Winning Trumps Feud

With 16 games remaining, the Lakers still need wins, fallout from the two months they blew on other pursuits, surgery, missed jump shots and snide comments about each other among them.

So, they’ll play in Sacramento on Thursday and San Antonio on Sunday -- the Boston Celtics come to Staples Center in between -- with the primary thought of accumulating victories, first to make the Western Conference playoffs and then to get home-court advantage in a first-round series.

If that seems elementary, you haven’t been paying attention to the Lakers, who haven’t needed a win in March since Phil Jackson arrived.

A home series -- they’d have to move out of their current sixth position into fourth -- probably would allow them to avoid one from among the Dallas Mavericks, Kings and Spurs.

The seeding entanglements serve as a backdrop to the ever-maturing feud between the Lakers and the Kings, Queens, Cub Scouts, whatever it is Shaquille O’Neal is calling them this week.

Off the top of his head, Kobe Bryant could think of only one real benefit to beating the Kings on Thursday night, other than the Lakers’ needing a 39th win just about now. The Kings beat the Lakers, 105-99, in the Christmas game at Staples and the Lakers beat the Kings, 124-113, on Jan. 31 in Sacramento.

“I think it’ll probably hurt them a little bit if we beat them two straight at Arco,” Bryant said. “That’ll probably get to them a little bit.”

It has already been two, of course, counting Game 7 of the Western Conference finals on the second day of June. Jackson grinned at the suggestion that the Lakers might have to reestablish themselves in the eyes of the Kings, or of themselves.

“I never had a moment where I felt we haven’t always considered that we couldn’t beat Sacramento,” he said. “We know it’s become much more difficult over the last three years. [But] we’ve never doubted our abilities to beat this team. That’s one of the great things about being a champion, is that you have the confidence factor to go back to things that have happened.”

That said, he added, “This year, we really can’t feel confident about anything we’ve done because we really haven’t had the continuity of the season, where we’ve played together, we’ve played whole, we’ve played with purpose and momentum. We’ve had two little runs here in the new year that we’d like to stretch into the season. We’d like to have another run before it’s over. Obviously to do that, we think that Sacramento is one of the teams we’d love to [beat] on that run, if we got a winning streak going. But, ultimately that’s not our goal, to go up there and win that game so we can set a precedent for the playoffs. It’s just one of many goals.”

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The Lakers had a maintenance day in El Segundo on Tuesday. O’Neal, Bryant and Rick Fox, who play long minutes, were excused and did not attend. Starters Derek Fisher and Mark Madsen did.... Jackson continues to carry a small kidney-stone fragment, according to X-rays taken Tuesday afternoon. Doctors hope the fragment passes in the next several days. If not, according to team spokesman John Black, Jackson could undergo a third procedure to break up the stone.