Latest Loss Lengthens Lakers’ Long Season

The Lakers on Tuesday night played their 32nd game of the season, a 90-89 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers at the Forum. It only seems like twice as many.

“It was a long ride,” Coach Del Harris said when asked to assess the first two months of 1995-96. “How’s that?”

Accurate.

First, there was the early flurry of road games--17 in all, tied with the Clippers, Nuggets and Hornets for the most in the league through the start of the new year. The Rockets played their 17th Tuesday.

Now, when the schedule finally turns in the Lakers’ favor with 16 of the next 20 contests at the Forum or Sports Arena, a chance for them to make hovering around .500 a thing of the past, there is tension.

After the last game, Harris openly questioned the effort of Cedric Ceballos, his all-star small forward.

Nick Van Exel and Ceballos, the team captains, both have made recent comments questioning Harris’ tactics or his offense, basically the same one they thrived under last season.

Executive Vice President Jerry West, clearly bothered, returned fire:

“Our leaders need to lead,” he said.

The implication, of course, is that they have not been doing so. Ceballos accepts his part of the blame, adding, “There’s definitely room for change, and there’s no time like the present to start doing that.” He said he spent the two off days, Sunday and Monday, doing some soul searching and decided he needed to provide more aggressive leadership.

Van Exel agrees the Lakers have been lacking in that area--”I don’t think it’s been pretty good”--but at the same time appears more concerned with other, more pressing, aspects of his game. Say, his open dislike for the offense and what he perceives as a lack of confidence from Harris.

Already laboring through a season in which he has struggled to find his shot, Van Exel, an emotional player, now feels he has to deal with his coach. Harris says that’s not true, that he still has ultimate confidence in the third-year point guard and that as recently as before Tuesday’s game he encouraged Van Exel to be more aggressive in pushing the ball and creating.

Something is getting lost in the translation. Thus Van Exel sometimes looks distracted in the locker room, sometimes not even making eye contact with Harris.

“A lot of people are frustrated,” Van Exel said. “With our talent, we’re a lot better team than our record shows.

“I know at times I get upset. That’s me. . . . There are times I want to take over the game, but the coach won’t let me. I shouldn’t [get as upset]. But it’s kind of hard not to because I’m such a competitor.

“Last year, if I got an opportunity and didn’t produce, he didn’t take me out. This year, I haven’t seen that. Yet.”

Van Exel, who had 27 points and nine assists against the 76ers, both game highs, stresses that the relationship with Harris is not, repeat not, fractured in any serious way and that the two can still work together. For the time being, though, it will have to move forward on a rocky path--they had a pre-game meeting Tuesday, but when asked how it went, Van Exel replied, “I feel about the same.”

The game couldn’t have helped anyone’s emotional state, not with the Lakers jumping out to a 23-4 lead after 9:47 and then getting outscored, 86-66, the rest of the way against an opponent that came in 1-12 on the road and tied for the fewest victories overall in the league.

Van Exel was at his best down the stretch, scoring eight of the Lakers’ final 10 points in the last 3:01, adding a key steal that he turned into a fastbreak dunk. But he also had two big misses on the final two possessions, the last one from only a few feet out.

Ceballos, en route to 15 points and 13 rebounds, got the offensive rebound and went right back up with a two-footer with a couple of seconds left, but the potential game-winner went in and out.