There’s Still Time to Get Stars Aligned

Steve Kerr stood beneath the stands at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Thursday, marveling at how much had changed since the last time his job had brought him to that building seven weeks earlier.

When the TNT announcers had broadcast the Lakers’ Dec. 4 game against the Mavericks the Lakers looked almost invincible. They had beaten Dallas that night, 24 hours after winning in San Antonio. They were on their way to an 18-3 start, the league’s best record. Their four all-stars had been all that, as Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone and Gary Payton had given the Lakers one of the top offenses in the NBA.

But on Jan. 22 the Lakers didn’t look so fearsome. They didn’t have O’Neal, Bryant or Malone in the lineup. They lost to the Mavericks that night, part of a nine-game road losing streak that would finally end two nights later at Utah. They had slipped to the fourth spot in the Western Conference.

Even so, Kerr considers them the team to beat for the NBA championship.

“At full strength, I still think they are,” he said.

That’s the prevailing opinion among those who get paid to watch this game. Give the Fantastic Four a chance to play together and the rest of the league should watch out.

“I think when they get everybody back they’ll be just as good,” said Jimmy Powell, a scout for the Indiana Pacers. “They’ll certainly be out of their rhythm for five or six games, but it’ll be like training camp all over again. Just give them five or six games, a couple of days when they can practice and they’ll be right back on track again.”

The slow return from the ranks of the injured to the lineup started Saturday in Utah. Bryant played for the first time since he sprained his right shoulder Jan. 12 and helped the Lakers to a 93-86 victory over the Jazz.

O’Neal hopes his strained right calf will be well enough to play Wednesday. That would leave Malone, who’s on the injured list with a sprained knee ligament.

Coach Phil Jackson has pointed toward the middle of February as the target date for his full roster. That would leave nine weeks remaining in the regular season.

“Will they have time enough to do it?” a Western Conference scout said. “I think they will. They all know what to do, the [Fantastic] Four. The other thing is, they found out who they’re going to be able to count on among the people off the bench, the replacements.”

That includes Slava Medvedenko and Kareem Rush. But the Lakers were 2-4 when they were starters.

The Lakers are 16-5 when all four stars play. They averaged 102.3 points in their first 23 games.

“I was really amazed at how well they played together,” said Hot Rod Hundley, the Utah Jazz play-by-play announcer. “They’ve got plenty of time. It didn’t take them that long to start with.”

Jackson does not think the Lakers will instantly become better when every player is in uniform. He remembers how they’d started to slip in the five games before Malone injured his knee on Dec. 21, with closer-than-necessary victories against Utah, New York and Denver and consecutive losses to Dallas and Portland.

“We were struggling before we had this team break up,” Jackson said. “We do miss those players. We do need to have them back to get ourselves reorganized and revitalized as a unit. We don’t think when they come back we’re going to automatically turn a switch on and suddenly everybody’s going to be fine again. We’re going to have to adjust to playing basketball together as a team again.”

They’ll be in a fight for playoff seeding as well. They are fourth with a 26-15 record, 3 1/2 games behind Sacramento for the Western Conference (and Pacific Division) lead.

“They found out last year, being in a bad playoff position is not great either,” Kerr said. “They need to do their best. I would think they would love to try to get the third spot.”

Jackson thought the Lakers suffered in last year’s playoffs because they were seeded fifth and had to start both playoff series on the road.

Hundley didn’t sound as concerned.

“If the Lakers are healthy, it doesn’t make a difference if they have home court,” he said. “That’s how strong they are with the addition of Gary Payton and Karl. With Shaq and Kobe full strength, I can’t see anybody beating them.”

But if the Lakers learned anything else from last year, it’s that they can’t assume O’Neal and Bryant can stay in top form. Bryant, perhaps worn down by playing all 82 games for the first time and carrying an extra scoring load, injured his shoulder in the first round at Minnesota. O’Neal never fully regained his conditioning following preseason surgery on his right big toe, and he played with a bad knee during the team’s dismissal by the San Antonio Spurs in the second round.

His calf injury has lingered for three weeks now.

“When you’ve got a guy 300 and whatever pounds, he’s losing conditioning every day,” Kerr said. “But how does he get it back when he’s putting all that weight on the injured toe? That’s going to be the interesting thing to watch, whether he can come back full strength at all. If he does, I think they’re the favorite. But if not, then they’re definitely not.”

As the Western Conference scout said, “Anytime you have Shaq, you’re the team to beat. That’s not to diminish anybody else’s role in there. If you have him healthy, you’re the team to beat.”

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Lakers’ Up & Down Season Top eight and bottom eight records in NBA on and since Dec. 23:

*--* ON DEC. 23, 2003 TOP 8 W-L Pct BOTTOM 8 W-L Pct LAKERS 20-5 800 Orlando 7-22 241 Sacramento 19-6 760 Atlanta 7-22 241 Indiana 20-8 714 Chicago 7-19 269 San Antonio 19-10 655 Cleveland 8-19 296 Minnesota 17-9 654 Washington 8-17 320 New Orleans 18-10 643 Phoenix 10-18 357 Denver 17-11 607 New York 10-18 357 Detroit 16-11 593 Miami 10-17 370

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*--* SINCE DEC. 23, 2003 TOP 8 W-L Pct BOTTOM 8 W-L Pct Minnesota 13-3 813 Washington 5-12 294 Detroit 13-5 722 Portland 5-11 313 Indiana 13-5 722 Philadelphia 5-11 313 Dallas 13-5 722 Orlando 5-11 313 Milwaukee 11-5 688 Chicago 6-12 333 Sacramento 11-6 647 Golden State 6-12 333 Houston 11-6 647 Phoenix 6-11 353 San Antonio 10-6 625 LAKERS 6-10 375

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more columns by Adande go to latimes.com/adande.