Laker Newcomers learn difficult system
By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
After two low-impact mornings of drills and stand-around instruction, the Los Angeles Lakers stretched their legs for some controlled full-court play yesterday.
The Lakers are in Honolulu this week for their preseason training camp at Stan Sheriff Center. They'll face the Golden State Warriors in exhibition games on Oct. 7 and 9.
The Lakers ended yesterday's extended 3-hour practice with a series of timed scrimmages using three rotating teams.
"We're trying to get them out there to play full court for eight minutes," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson. "(We) play them hard for that period of time and then get them off the court so we have a chance to keep guys healthy."
With Kobe Bryant in Chicago for his grandfather's funeral and Shaquille O'Neal, Derek Fisher and Mark Madsen sitting out with injuries, the Lakers' younger players and off-season additions got extra time to work on offensive and defensive fundamentals Jackson and his staff preached during the first two days of practice.
"This is such a difficult system to learn how to play, we don't expect our young players and new players to come in and learn everything in the first two weeks of training camp," Jackson said.
To help the new players get accustomed to the system, Jackson mixed veterans and newcomers for yesterday's scrimmages."
The Gold Team, featuring returnees Robert Horry, Mike Penberthy and Devean George with newcomers Mitch Richmond, Samaki Walker and Paul Shirley, beat the Red Team (Rick Fox, Stanislav Medvedenko, Dickey Simpkins, Isaac Fontaine and Joe Crispin) in the final run of the day.
"We're making progress," Jackson said. "We had a nice look today at guys who can help us out. Samaki Walker at the end of practice shot the ball well from the post. Some of our younger players have just been playing really well."
Jackson cancelled the team's scheduled evening practice yesterday and said he may give the team a day off tomorrow.
The team opened camp on Saturday, three days ahead of the rest of the league. According to league rules, they'll have to "give back" those three days sometime during the course of the preseason.
"The big thing is that Kobe's not here and he's missing five or six days to start," Jackson said. "That would be like penalizing him nine days if we have to give three days back later on.
"Rather than Kobe having to miss an extra day once he gets back I'm mulling giving a day back (tomorrow).
Jackson said he also wants to ease into the preseason to avoid injuries while players work their way back into playing shape. That should also benefit Richmond, who suffered a serious MCL (knee) injury last season.
"We know it's going to be a little bit of a struggle at this time so it's a real fine balance" Jackson said.
Tickets for the Lakers' two exhibition games are still available through the Stan Sheriff Center Box Office.
For more information, call 956-4482.
