Expectations Coming to the Four

As the Laker superstars return, a roster move at a time, the expectations ascend with the stakes, the playoffs five weeks out.

After a successful Thursday afternoon practice at Target Center, Karl Malone is expected to start tonight against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and so the Laker Four could be on the floor, together, for the first time since the days before Christmas.

“It seems like everything’s a go,” Malone said, beaming.

As Malone gathered his belongings, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and Gary Payton already gone, Rick Fox, the fifth starter among them, said the Lakers should win at least 16 of their remaining 18 regular-season games.

“Maybe two losses,” he said.

That, he said, was the goal, believing everyone but the Sacramento Kings could be caught in the Western Conference, including the 45-20 Timberwolves. The Kings are six losses ahead of the 42-22 Lakers.

“I don’t think they’ll lose eight games,” Fox said of the Kings. “We can catch Minnesota, though, for the second round. That means you can’t lose to these guys at all. You can’t lose to Sac.”

The Lakers started 18-3 and were 20-5 when Malone tore a ligament in his right knee. More than two months of average basketball followed, in large part because O’Neal and Bryant also went to the injured list for spells.

And while they’re not entirely whole yet -- trainer Gary Vitti spent the day reworking the protective pad and shirt Bryant will wear during games and Malone admitted he might start tentatively -- they’re close enough to draw optimism from the will in Bryant’s game and the sweat in Malone’s T-shirt.

The day after his unexpected return to the lineup and 40 minutes against the Boston Celtics, Bryant said his shoulder “feels fine.... It doesn’t feel worse.”

The Lakers also hope to have Horace Grant, who has sat out five games because of a sore hip.

“He looked good,” Fox said of Malone. “It was good to have him out there. He beat a lot of people down the floor, as usual. Hopefully, if he’s as good as he was before, he’ll free up Shaq a little more.”

So it seems whatever the Lakers will be in the playoffs will be decided now, in one last shot at integrating four dynamic games and personalities into a three-sided offense. They’ve had their moments of displeasure and physical frailty, and the line outside Vitti’s door shows no sign of thinning.

But their talent is as unquestioned as their futures are vague, three of the four -- and Coach Phil Jackson -- having the ability to leave the organization, the potential expiration date July.

Until then, they have each other, finally, for what will be only the 22nd time this season, in their 65th game.

Asked what he expected in the coming weeks, with half of The Four in something of a healing mode, Jackson said, “Just adjustment. Refining. Parsing out how we’re going to play with each other and the minutes guys are going to play on the floor. How the bench reacts to that.”

Malone probably will play in bursts of six to eight minutes, many of them against Kevin Garnett.

“If this is difficult, it’s probably me,” he said. “Kobe’s been here. He’s used to the system a lot more. It’s my job to pick that up. So that’s what I have to do.... I don’t think they’ll have to wait on me.

“I just want to be out on the floor and see double-teams I can be involved in. I just want to do it and therefore I can say something to the other guys. But I have to do it first. Like today in practice, I broke what we were doing and double-teamed a guy and good things happened. That’s kind of what it is.”