WHEN THE MARCH BEGAN

By SCOTT HOWARD-COOPER

May 14, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Scrutiny had been at its most intense in the opening days of the new month, following them from New York on a Sunday afternoon to Washington on a Monday night and then across the country to Los Angeles for the remainder of what would be the pivotal week of the Lakers’ season. Beware the eyes of March.

It seemed as if it would follow them all the way into the abyss. The loss to the injury-ravaged Knicks on March 1 came as the Lakers were blitzed in the fourth quarter, 33-18. The loss to the lottery-bound Wizards came as Shaquille O’Neal, though not naming names, clearly lobbed his bad-shot-selection grenades at Eddie Jones.

The fun was only beginning. Rumors circulated Tuesday that Coach Del Harris was about to be fired and that players had voted unanimously for his ouster. A players-only meeting became the platform for the airing of bad feelings. A letter from Executive Vice President Jerry West lit them up even worse than the Knicks had in that fourth quarter.

It was the first week in March, and it was the crossroads.

“Everybody just basically went home,” Nick Van Exel said, “and asked themselves how bad we wanted to win this thing.”

Bad enough, it turned out. The recovery was not merely immediate, with a win over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday and the San Antonio Spurs on Friday, but dramatic in the way it continued. The Lakers, starting with that Indiana game, closed the regular season with a 22-3 run, went 3-1 in the first round of the playoffs against the Portland Trail Blazers and just finished off the Seattle SuperSonics in dominating 4-1 fashion.

They are 29-5 since the turnaround and in the Western Conference finals for the first time since 1991, starting Saturday in Salt Lake City against the Jazz. And they know exactly why.

The Letter

“I didn’t do that for any particular reason,” West says now. “I certainly don’t want to take any credit. But sometimes an inward look is the most important thing.

“I guess the thing I hoped for was just to give the people something thought-provoking.”

That tends to happen when word comes from above that “Each of you are on the verge of letting this season slip right through your fingers.” So began the one-page letter.

“Only one team will be champion,” it said. “That team will have worked their butts off to get there, that team will know each other’s every move, every thought. That team will be a machine that’s fueled with compassion, desire, determination, drive, devotion and pride.

“That team could and should be the Lakers.”

Van Exel said he had no idea such a letter existed, but he was one of the few players, maybe the only player, who missed the sheet of paper on just about every chair or stall in the locker room at the Great Western Forum. It was even tougher to miss the point.

“It inspired us,” Jones said. “It made us look at ourselves. It made us see what we were made of.”

Said O’Neal: “Jerry was kind of nice to the guys. He sent them a corporate version. Nice pretty white sheet of paper, big black print. I got the home-boy version.”

As in, disgust expressed in conversation, not in print.

“Forty-five seconds of terror,” O’Neal said.

The Defense

The new plan, implemented the previous week, was for the Lakers to ease off the throttle on offense, take fewer quick shots and trap less on defense, hoping it would result in a more stable, consistent presence. Harris said the Feb. 25 showing at Indiana--the Pacers shot 36%--had the potential to become a defining moment for his team.

Except that the players didn’t maintain the focus, most evident against the Knicks and Wizards. But when the Pacers came to the Forum on March 4, the Wednesday game, so did the defense.

“And we’ve been pretty much consistently on that kind of program ever since,” Harris said.

It’s the same kind that carried over to the playoffs and helped limit the SuperSonics to 44% shooting and 94.4 points a game.

“Changing focus,” Rick Fox said. “It’s tough to be a defensive team when you’re so good on offense. But defense wins.”

The Meeting

“It helped dramatically,” Jones said.

Harris had talked to the team, but it was Horry’s idea to follow that with a players-only meeting--and not because he figured it would be easier to collect the ballots that way.

“There were a few cuss words spread, but nothing hyper,” Horry said. “It was like if you have two kids and the house is dirty and they’re fussing and it doesn’t matter if you’re mad at them, that someone is going to get in trouble. We were fussing at each other.

“Just people letting off some frustration. Just people saying what’s on their minds.”

Said O’Neal: “We just came in, we just fought.”

Actually, they vented. It cleared the air.

The Firing

Which, of course, wasn’t.

“You have to give our coaches credit,” West said. “They hung in there when they were getting battered from all sides.”

A continued slide probably would have put Harris in jeopardy, but a decision to fire him was never made. Getting deep into the decision-making process never even became an issue because the Lakers went on a six-game winning streak, starting the day reports labeled him a goner and said a player vote encouraged his dismissal.

“Del got a bum rap,” Jones said. “We never sat down and had a meeting saying we wanted him out. That’s false.”

Exactly what role this played in the turnaround is the most difficult of the primary factors to gauge. Sometimes it could be good to clear the air, true. But when is it good not to have a single player step forward and say he wants the coach to remain?

They like Harris and, given the opportunity to get him fired, never went in the tank for a couple of games. But they hardly rushed to stand by his side.

“At the time, I used the analogy that the same thing happened to me in ‘81,” Harris said. “It came out in stories that I was going to be fired and, son of a gun, we [the Rockets] went to the finals.

“So I’ve got the feeling of deja vu. Karma. I like it. I like the karma.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

WEEK OF MARCH 1

SUNDAY 1: A national television audience sees the Lakers lose a fourth-quarter lead and the game to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, 101-89. They are outscored, 33-18 even though the Knicks are without Patrick Ewing, Chris Childs and Chris Dudley.

MONDAY 2: The Lakers shoot 40.5% in a 96-86 loss to the Wizards in Washington, ending the season-long six-game trip, 3-3. Without naming anyone, Shaquille O’Neal criticizes Eddie Jones’ shot selection.

TUESDAY 3: Rumors start circulating that Harris will be fired by the end of the week.

WEDNESDAY 4: At the morning shootaround, Harris tells the team he is still the coach and has heard nothing to the contrary. Robert Horry calls a players-only meeting, where the air is cleared. The Lakers then beat the Pacers at home, 104-95.

THURSDAY 5: Laker players strongly deny a report that they had voted in favor of Harris’ ouster.

FRIDAY 6: In a part-inspirational, part-critical letter to players and staff, West says, “Each of you are on the verge of letting this season slip right through your fingers.” That night, the Lakers beat San Antonio at the Forum, 91-84.

Stretch Run

After two losses to begin March, the Lakers finished the regular season with 22 victories in 25 games (home team in caps):

MARCH (13-2 after two losses)

March 4 LAKERS 104, Indiana 95

March 6 LAKERS 91, San Antonio 84

March 8 LAKERS 96, Detroit 89

March 11 LAKERS 121, Portland 107

March 12 Lakers 108, CLIPPERS 85

March 15 Lakers 119, VANCOUVER 110

March 16 SEATTLE 101, Lakers 89

March 18 LAKERS 99, Phoenix 93

March 20 LAKERS 93, Seattle 80