Scrimmage Offers Highs and Lows

Glen Rice made his first five shots, the first team ran the triangle offense fluidly for several minutes at a time, and, predictably, the Lakers generally wore down at the end of three 10-minute quarters in their first open scrimmage Sunday night at UC Santa Barbara’s Thunderdome.

“We saw a lot of real good things out there tonight, [but] that doesn’t mean that Shaq’s foul shooting was included in that,” said Coach Phil Jackson, making sure to point out Shaquille O’Neal’s woeful 0-for-7 effort.

Aside from that, O’Neal, who had 10 points and five rebounds according to unofficial statistics, looked active and comfortable in the triangle, along with Rice, who finished with 12 points on six-of-nine shooting, and Kobe Bryant, who also had 12 points.

Second-year guard Sam Jacobson made all three of his three-point attempts for the gold team, and led all scorers with 13 points. A.C. Green led all rebounders with seven.

“I thought they organized their offense all right for a week of training, five or six days, whatever we’ve had,” Jackson said. “They looked like they were knowing what they were doing for a little bit at a time.”

Is Jackson concerned about O’Neal’s free-throw shooting after such a ragged start?

“Well, they aren’t keeping stats yet, are they?” Jackson said.

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Before the game, Jackson slyly chided Bryant’s tendency to want to please crowds with show-stopping moves.

“Yeah, the Kobe Memorial game,” Jackson said, adding that one-on-one play to draw ooohs and aaaahs is precisely what he does not want to see.

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Continuing the effort to keep his players alert and slightly off-balance, Jackson on Sunday morning mused about the general assumption that the Lakers came to training camp in top physical condition.

“I don’t know_you might say I’m kind of coasting with them, rather than they’ve been in shape,” Jackson said of workouts that have left a few players gasping for air. “I don’t believe what I’ve been reading in the paper about guys being in great shape.

“I’ve had to nurse a couple guys through practices, and we’re doing a lot of teaching and a lot of conditioning to that teaching, so we’re not running as hard as a lot of teams are right at the beginning.”

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The long wait for free-agent guard Ron Harper is apparently about to end. Jackson said his old Chicago Bull mainstay will likely sign a contract during the Lakers’ exhibition road trip this week, then join the team for Thursday’s practice at L.A. Southwest College.

“Ron doesn’t need this,” Jackson said of the Lakers’ triangle-intensive camp. “He’s been doing this for the last seven years.”