Imperfect, but No Practice

The Lakers had won five games by a total of 20 points, two in overtime, two against the Clippers, two others against Orlando and Chicago, and Coach Phil Jackson, given two days before the Sacramento Kings would arrive, gave everybody Monday off.

“Tuesday,” read the grease board at one end of the locker room. “10:30.” Players blinked and looked again.

After nine days during which the only thing more difficult than beating the Clippers was beating the Magic, Jackson sided again with restraint, choosing to rest Kobe Bryant’s shoulder, Karl Malone’s knee and all of the little issues that traipse along beside the Lakers.

Just last weekend, Gary Payton and Bryant had observed that the Laker defense was inadequate because they didn’t practice it, no real revelation to anyone who’d seen them against a high pick-and-roll.

The Lakers generally don’t do Big Weeks in March, their Big Weeks for the last four years more often containing Games 4 through 7 in May or June.

But Wednesday they play the Kings, against whom they are 0-2 and trail in the Pacific Division by four games. And Friday they play the Minnesota Timberwolves, who have won three times against the Lakers and so hold the first home-court tiebreaker in a possible second-round series.

“We have to play better than we played [Sunday] to win,” Jackson said.

The Lakers will play 12 more regular-season games, 10 against teams with winning records, eight against playoff teams if the season ended Sunday. The Kings, Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and Memphis Grizzlies all have it easier.

So, a Big Week would seem to be a Big Week, even in March, whether or not it is deserving of practice.

“Wins are important,” Rick Fox said. “We’re trying to catch a couple teams in front of us. Right now, we’ll hang our hats on the fact we’re winning close games, regardless of who we’re playing.

“We have a couple games coming up on Wednesday and Friday that are really true tests, and hope we play once again to the level of our competition and win by one or two points.”

Fox smiled at his joke, the reference being to the Lakers’ knack of playing inferior teams to the wire, sometimes to a second wire. Seventy games in, the Lakers have yet to demonstrate anything like a concentrated effort. Some of it has to do with playing only 26 games with Bryant, Malone, Shaquille O’Neal and Payton injury free, but there’s more.

So often, they stand around on defense, stand around when Bryant wants to score and stand around when he doesn’t.

Sound basketball minds ponder how O’Neal can score at least 27 points and take at least 23 rebounds against the Magic and Bucks, and the Lakers can still be on the brink of defeat.

Malone’s return has helped some. And, if nothing else came of Sunday night’s 15-point collapse and overtime victory over Milwaukee, it was the play of Malone, who had 14 points, eight rebounds and five assists. More important, he moved well on defense, ran the floor as well as he has since Scott Williams landed on his knee, and in overtime made two midrange jump shots that turned a 98-98 tie into a 102-98 lead.

Wary of stressing Malone’s knee, Jackson sat him for the final two minutes of the third quarter and the first seven minutes of the fourth. Jackson also said he preferred a Luke Walton-Toni Kukoc matchup at power forward because Kukoc is a perimeter player.

Afterward, Malone cheered the victory but gestured to his body and said, “This machine is geared to play 48.”

He had made 22 of 49 shots since coming off the injured list, but Malone had been unhappy with his jump shot, and had missed some early against the Bucks before finding his touch in overtime.

“My job is to be ready,” he said. “Everybody wants to be out there, but, hey, to be out there in a crucial time is most important to me.”

All part of the process, according to the Lakers.

“[We’re not going to] make a mountain out of a molehill right now,” Fox said. “There’s definitely a need to get better in a lot of areas, but I think when we go back to the tape, we’re always finding something positive. We’re trying not to dwell on so much of the negative. But the negative is showing us what to work on next.”

They’ll practice today.