Jackson Plays It Safer and Starts Walton Over Wafer

The “wild horse” didn’t run free.

Laker Coach Phil Jackson suggested he might start rookie Von Wafer in Kobe Bryant’s place Sunday against the Utah Jazz, but he went with a safer choice, Luke Walton.

Jackson mused Saturday that sometimes “it’s good to have a wild horse out there” and revisited the possibility before the game, saying he was “standing on the teeter-totter” whether to start the second-round draft pick from Florida State.

The central conflict tugging at Jackson: “Whether we want to be down by 20 right away with him in there or up by 20 accidentally because the Lord strikes him with lightning or something,” the coach said.

It was raining outside, and the game was on a Sunday, but the shoot-first-worry-later Wafer didn’t enter until taking Walton’s place with 1:23 left in the first quarter.

Wafer, averaging 0.8 of a point in five games before Sunday, had two points in six minutes. Walton had 10 points in 25 minutes.

Jackson didn’t have many options, with Aaron McKie still out because of a strained quadriceps tendon and Laron Profit expected to miss the rest of the season because of a ruptured Achilles’ heel. “We lost our backup [shooting] guards, Aaron and Laron, in subsequent weeks almost,” Jackson said. “It’s been really a void there and that’s the unfortunate part of it.”

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Bryant is not allowed to attend games while serving his flagrant-foul suspension and will not travel with the team for Tuesday’s game in Utah.

“Makes no sense for him to go along on the trip and stay in the hotel while we play,” Jackson said.