Horry Starts Anew With Lakers

Horry, Horry, hallelujah?

The Lakers went 21-7 when Cedric Ceballos was injured, and had a better winning percentage than when he was in the lineup, so they had gotten used to playing without him long ago. That made the possibility of a permanent split easier to consider. That, and the fact that teammates were willing to help him pack.

In his place is Robert Horry, who plays the same position but isn’t the same player.

Ceballos was great around the basket, scoring and rebounding. The Lakers are looking for Horry to be a three-point threat.

Ceballos could be a decent defender when he dedicated himself to it. The other 99.5% of his Laker career, he was a liability. Horry, in the words of Coach Del Harris, “can guard any forward in basketball” and last season finished 16th in the league in steals and 20th in blocks, becoming one of only five players to break triple digits in both.

The transition period starts tonight for the Lakers, though they figure Horry is so compatible that it should be more like a transition comma--no stop, only a brief pause. The Vancouver Grizzlies are at the Forum and so are Horry and Joe Kleine for their debuts, four days after they were acquired in the deal that sent Ceballos and Rumeal Robinson to the Phoenix Suns.

After two full-squad practices, Harris noted that his newest players were in “satisfactory” condition, and both had crash courses in the playbook.

“It’s simple,” Horry said of learning the sets. “Real simple. But I’ve got to get the names right. A lot of the plays, I remember even from Houston and from Phoenix, but it was ‘zipper’ in Phoenix and ‘21’ here. So once you get the terminology down, you’re fine.”

Horry, who will probably be a reserve tonight before eventually replacing Jerome Kersey at small forward, also arrives shooting only 30.8% on three-point shots. He also arrives with a pretty good explanation.

Hakeem Olajuwon isn’t with the Suns. In fact, no dominating big man is, so there was no one to draw attention inside and allow spot-up shooters like Horry their chances outside.

In the four years before that in Houston, before the Rockets sent him to Phoenix in the Charles Barkley deal, Horry was a respectable 36.5%. Subtract his rookie season, before the three-pointer had even become a real part of his game, and he was 37.2%.

Reunited with another center to orbit around, even if Shaquille O’Neal is not yet as good as Olajuwon at passing out of the double teams, and it’s no wonder Horry is excited.

Said Harris: “He brings a lot of factors. We have a good three-point shooting team anyway. He just adds to that.”

Starting tonight.