Walton Is Starting to Get Comfortable

Laker Coach Phil Jackson keeps saying it’s only temporary, even experimental, but Luke Walton keeps popping up in the starting lineup.

The Laker forward has taken Brian Cook’s spot and run with it, averaging 8.3 points, six rebounds and 4.8 assists in four consecutive games as a starter.

The season had been a grind for Walton, who started off with a severe hamstring pull in training camp and lost his confidence near midseason, bottoming out with a scoreless, airball-filled effort against Sacramento in January.

“It was hard,” Walton said. “I knew that it mainly had to do with confidence. I was working on my shot every day and I was feeling good, but it just wasn’t going for me. Now I’m relaxed and having fun, and it seems to be back for me.”

Walton has rallied, helping push the Lakers toward a playoff-clinching victory Sunday with eight points, 10 rebounds and six assists in a 109-89 victory over Phoenix.

“His shooting went to the outhouse for a while, so he had to redeem it,” Jackson said. “But he really worked on it and came back and has gained confidence in that shot, and it has shown in his productivity.”

Jackson is hesitant to keep Walton in the starting lineup because he wants some zest off the bench, but Walton keeps walking out to the court with the other starters for the first quarter.

“I like starting,” he said. “I kind of like playing with the second unit because I’ve been kind of playing with them all year, but it’s fun coming out of the gates.”

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The Lakers and Suns aren’t officially first-round opponents yet, but Jackson provided an impromptu scouting report after the Lakers’ victory Sunday. In doing so, he anecdotally spoke of consultant Tex Winter’s struggles to chart the Sun offense from the Laker bench.

“We have to find a way to make them play our game,” Jackson said. “They’re a team that plays at such a high rate of possessions that Tex ran out of paper in the first quarter.

“We also want to learn how to get the ball inside against their defense. They clog the middle and they close the lane. Kobe [Bryant] crashed through there a few times and got some free throws but I wasn’t totally pleased that that’s how we’re going to be able to attack them in the playoffs.”

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Former Laker Brian Grant started Sunday for the short-handed Suns, going scoreless and taking six rebounds in 18 minutes.

Still on the Laker payroll until after next season, Grant signed a two-year, $3.5-million contract with Phoenix after being waived by the Lakers last summer under the one-time “amnesty” rule.

He gets $13.8 million this season from the Lakers and $15.4 million next season, although a small portion of that will be offset by his salary from the Suns.

Grant, 34, is averaging 2.6 points and 2.3 rebounds in 19 games this season for the Suns.

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Laker center Chris Mihm sat out his 17th game because of a severely sprained right ankle. “I watched Mihm practice in a four-on-four full-court and I just felt like this isn’t the game or the time for him to come back,” Jackson said.

Mihm could return Wednesday in the regular-season finale against New Orleans.

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The Clippers will have the better regular-season record, but the Lakers are playing better at the end of the season.

The question to Jackson: Which team would you rather be right now?

“It all depends upon which team does the best in the playoffs,” he said. “The second season, as we say, is really where you’re measured.”