High Signs

By J.A. Adande

Dec. 3, 2003 12 AM PT

The Lakers are burning the village in order to save it, providing one of the few reasons to watch the NBA even while they’re in the process of dominating it.

With each game, they’re elevating their play, showing a mastery of the sport that sets them above 99% of the league at a time when shooting and scoring are plummeting. Lately, the joy in watching Laker games hasn’t been in the competition but in the artistry.

As a result, the Lakers are shooting 47%, compared to the league-wide average of 43%. What difference can 4% make? Over the course of the season, that can amount to roughly 270 extra baskets.

Even opposing teams’ scouts take pleasure in watching the Lakers use the entire floor and the entire roster to score.

“I love it,” advance scout Gene Littles of the Seattle SuperSonics said. “I love it.”

So while half of the teams struggle to crack 90 points a game, the Lakers average 103.1. Yes, the Lakers have more star players than most teams, but they also are using them better. Karl Malone and Gary Payton didn’t just push the team’s average age a little closer to AARP range, they raised the collective basketball IQ.

The only team with better shooting, scoring and assist numbers is the Sacramento Kings -- but the Lakers are better at defense and rebounding.

“Right now, the Lakers and Sacramento are the two best passing teams in basketball,” Indiana Pacer Coach Rick Carlisle said. “ I never thought anybody could ever rival what Sacramento does, but the Lakers are right there. Their sharing of the ball and their scoring off a lot of cuts, things like that, it’s making them very hard to play.

“They’re also very deep, and they’ve become a better transition team too. So there’s a lot more situations you’ve got to deal with, along with a couple of extra great players.”

Basketball is a simple sport. Teams don’t use complicated plays with names like Trips Left Y-Zoom 21 H Swing when a basic Fist or Four-Down will do. You move the ball, you find the open man, you take the best shot possible.

That seems to be lost on a generation of players who apparently think “best shot possible” means a fall-away jumper over a double-team.

“A lot of guys feel they’re open in this game and the [feeling] is, if I’m open, it must be a good shot,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “Whether it’s at the three-point line or inside, it must be a good shot, I’m open. But the rules of the game and the dictates and the momentum of the game and the way the game is played [demonstrate] that the rhythm has to be established, which is probably what dictates good shots beyond anything else.”

When Kobe Bryant checks out the struggling teams around the league, he comes away with one impression.

“They look young,” he said. “They really do.”

That’s coming from a 25-year-old. But in many ways, Bryant has never looked older. A career 46% shooter, he has made 50% of his shots in the Lakers’ 14 victories this season. When he shows less discretion, it’s obvious. He has shot 30% in their three losses. By staying within the team offense in the last two weeks, he demonstrates how much knowledge he has gained since he was young -- er, younger.

“It’s increased drastically,” Bryant said. “You can see my explosiveness isn’t there, but I can still be just as effective. That just comes from knowledge of the game, understanding of the game and how to use other players out there on the floor.”

Another example of growth with age is at Malone’s stall in the corner of the locker room. Malone averaged three assists a game over his first 10 years as a pro. In the next eight, he averaged 4.2, an improvement he attributes to spending those 18 years on the court with John Stockton, the NBA all-time assist leader.

“You play with a guy like that, it’s contagious,” Malone said. “You get to the point that you want to pass. I don’t mind scoring. It seems like, over the years, when everything is behind the back, between the legs with the basketball, people are starting to appreciate the pass a lot more than even the basket.

“You’ve got to want to [pass]. You’ve got to say, ‘Yeah, I want to score, but I want to pass as well.’ ”

There’s another way Malone has changed, the result of an effort to enjoy this new environment and this once-in-a-lifetime collection of talent, and others have noticed.

“He’s just having fun, smiling, laughing,” Littles observed. “I’ve never seen him that way. All the years they won in Utah -- they won a lot of games -- but here he just seems to be having fun.”

Laughter can be just as contagious as good passing. When everyone gets a chance to score -- and no one person has to score for the Lakers to win -- the atmosphere gets better, which can lead to even more teamwork.

Shaquille O’Neal can go an entire half without a field goal, as was the case against San Antonio on Friday night, and not brood during timeouts. “When you’re up by 20, 25 points it doesn’t matter,” he said.

O’Neal, with a calf injury, sat out games against Memphis and Washington and was ineffective against San Antonio, but in those games the Lakers scored 344 points -- and O’Neal produced only seven of them.

They’re far less reliant now on O’Neal. They still have the same, inside-out offensive philosophy, but now they have other ways to get the ball in the paint besides dumping it into O’Neal. Payton can penetrate down the middle, then pass back out to Bryant or Devean George for open jump shots. Or Payton can drive the baseline and zip a pass to Derek Fisher in the corner.

And Payton and Bryant can turn O’Neal into a fast-break finisher. Seeing a 350-pounder steaming down the middle is fun to watch; it’s like the truck chase in “Matrix Reloaded.”

“It’s a well-balanced attack,” Bryant said. “Everybody’s a feature focus in our offense. Everybody’s a threat. It hasn’t been like that since I’ve been here. It’s really tough for teams to play.”

But it sure is easy on the eyes.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

BY THE NUMBERS A look at some key Laker numbers this season, where they rank in the NBA, and the league average in that statistic:

103.1

Points per game, second in the league

(NBA average is 91.6)

9.8

Average margin of victory, leading the league

(NBA average is 3.8)

47.2%

Field-goal percentage, second in the league

(NBA average is 42.9%)