Payton Is Battling a Sore Back

Gary Payton could not finish practice Monday because of a sore lower back, a chronic ailment he has endured for many years.

He limped into the gym at about noon, an hour after players were required to report, and limped out about two hours later, after many had left. Asked if he expected to play in Game 2 Wednesday, Payton nodded and said, “I’m good. I’ll be straight.”

Coach Phil Jackson called Payton’s tardiness “a disappointment.” He said Payton “should be available” for Game 2.

A team spokesman said Payton ran late “for personal reasons” and that it was unrelated to his back injury or his disappointment with Sunday’s Game 1, an 88-78 loss in San Antonio in which he was only marginally occupied.

Unhappy in his restricted role with the talent-heavy Lakers, Payton said again Sunday that in a perfect world he’d be given the ball in the post against Spur point guard Tony Parker. The Lakers actually have drawn a play to do that, Play 41 in their binders, and Jackson asked for it Sunday, but apparently not enough for Payton’s taste.

Besides, Jackson said Monday, “We don’t have to be on Gary’s page. He has to be on our page.” He then added, “It’s not a concern.”

It seems that being a Laker is getting tougher by the day for Payton. In the regular season, when he averaged 14.6 points, he expressed hope he would become more involved with the offense in the playoffs. In the first round, when he averaged 8.4 points against Houston, he said he would score more in the next round. Sunday, in the first game of the Western Conference semifinals, he had four points.

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Rick Fox, who started and averaged 22 minutes in the first three games of the playoffs, played nine minutes in Games 4 and 5 against Houston and did not play Sunday against the Spurs. Jackson has given the small-forward minutes to Devean George and Kobe Bryant, along with a few to Luke Walton.

Fox dislocated his thumb near the end of the regular season and has made one shot in the playoffs. Fox is tougher and more composed than George, but George has made nine of 15 field goals and six of nine threes in the postseason, which for the moment has Jackson’s attention.

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Bryant was fifth and Shaquille O’Neal sixth in the league MVP voting, leaving Jackson’s preseason challenge for O’Neal to win the award a second time undone.

In the season in which he turned 32, O’Neal attempted the second-fewest shots of his career, behind only the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season. He also made fewer than half of his free throws. As a result, his 21.5-point average was the lowest of his career.

He did, however, block more shots and take more rebounds than in his previous two seasons, and the offensive fall-off was expected with the additions of Karl Malone and Payton.