If They Lose, Jackson Could End Up Taking It on the Chin

An NBA title may have been won Tuesday when a bearded coach diagramed a cool play that his team ran to perfection.

That coach was not Phil Jackson.

A conference finals series is being led by a team so focused and prepared, it has been ahead by at least 15 points in three of the five games.

That team’s coach is not Phil Jackson.

Remember how Jackson once coaxed such excitement into the playoffs his star was moved to bump and grind on the press table?

When it happened again Tuesday, the star was from the other team.

There is much at stake tonight at Staples Center as the Lakers attempt to smoke a three-hour cigarette while looking down the barrel of the Sacramento Kings.

A loss in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals would end a three-peat, stall a three-vival, slow a three-incarnation.

The three-percussions alone would stretch from Figueroa to El Segundo, touching not only those who wear the uniforms, but those who wash them, and sell them, and buy them, and love them.

Yet nobody stands to lose as much as the one who doesn’t wear one.

With one loss, Phil Jackson could go from invincible to vulnerable, from untouchable to unmasked, from Zen Master to disaster.

Fair or not, from the start, Jackson’s success with a haughty Laker bunch that ignored less-accomplished bosses was based on the notion that the guy with six world championships knows best.

Fair or not, a loss to the Kings either tonight or Sunday would bring that notion into doubt.

It would be the first time in Jackson’s illustrious career that his team lost a series it was expected to win. It would be the first time that the guy with all the rings would have to share some of the blame.

A loss would be difficult enough in the record books, by ruining Jackson’s chances to pass Pat Riley (all-time playoff wins) and tie Red Auerbach (championships).

It could, however, be much harder in the locker room, where the players respond not to numbers but nuances. A place where Jackson has walked like a king would suddenly become a place where he simply worked as an equal.

And where he will be surely questioned like one.

Those publicized scoldings of players? Suddenly they’re not so cute, and the players aren’t so patient.

Those celebrated stretches during games where he never even stands up? Thoughtful becomes uninterested, and motivation becomes eccentricity.

Would Jackson still be a great coach? Of course. The facts are still the facts. His record of 22 consecutive playoff series victories will probably never be broken.

But as the fallen Riley can attest, much of the modern game is about perception. One loss this weekend, besides engendering much celebration from a league that thinks he is already too big for his designer britches, could subtly alter that perception in the manner that a downhill nudge alters a boulder.

The “heated discussions” with Shaquille O’Neal could become wars.

The so-called agreements with Kobe Bryant about defensive assignments could become feuds.

The referees won’t pay him as much homage. The fans won’t cut him as much slack. We’re assuming the boss’ daughter will still be in love, but everything else will be in play.

Already in this postseason, Jackson’s rich Laker landscape has suffered the withering effects of several tiny fires.

Remember when he publicly called out O’Neal in the middle of the second round against San Antonio? O’Neal responded with good effort, but also with attitude, waving off Jackson during one timeout, then offering this memorable explanation for an important late rebound.

“I didn’t want to hear Phil’s mouth,” he said.

It was also during the Spur series that Bryant appeared to wave off Jackson while leaving the floor, moving his hands as if imitating someone talking too much. The motions were never quite explained, but Bryant’s disgusted expression might be construed as a hint.

Are the players starting to treat Jackson as all players eventually treat the greatest NBA coaches?

In other words, are they starting to tune him out?

This question arose again last Friday when, faced with one of Jackson’s trademark throat-grabbing games, his team cowered.

Falling behind by 17 points in the first quarter of Game 3 did not imply focus.

Falling behind by 20 points in the first quarter of Game 4 did not announce preparedness.

Off the court, it has become just as messy. Jackson revealed that O’Neal didn’t want the ball in the first quarter, then became mired in a semantics discussion with Bryant about who was going to guard Mike Bibby at the end of Game 5.

“It’s not like he’s saying anything to the newspapers that he hasn’t already said to our faces,” Rick Fox said. “We understand it. We accept it.”

Yet it’s still way out there, those techniques that have included leaving O’Neal in one playoff game to pick up his fourth foul late in the first half, and completely ignoring guard Mitch Richmond for 11 playoff games before throwing him into a pressure situation Tuesday.

Funny how one playoff elimination can shake that tightrope.

Amazing as it would have seemed a month ago, the calmer, sharper coach this week has appeared to be the Kings’ Rick Adelman.

It is Adelman who has designed the pick-and-rolls that the Lakers cannot decipher. It is Adelman who has adjusted his offense without the team’s second-leading scorer.

It is Adelman who figured out that Mike Bibby should take that last shot Tuesday.

It is Jackson who did not order Bryant to guard him.

And here comes the annual parade of colleague critics, from the ridiculous (Bob Huggins) to the sublime (Auerbach), all of them claiming Jackson doesn’t manage games and doesn’t teach and doesn’t deserve such respect.

That’s so silly. The Lakers could not have won the first two championships of this new era without Jackson, and even Jerry West knows it.

But now they are expected to win a third, and good enough to win a third, with a coach who is being paid $6 million annually to make it happen.

“It’s a lot about coaching,” Jackson acknowledged Thursday, one day before a game that could be a lot about him.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at [email protected].

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*--* Close, but Far Away Phil Jackson needs six victories to pass Pat Riley for the most playoff victories by an NBA coach and tie Red Auerbach for an NBA-record ninth championship in the process. A look: Coach W-L Pct Titles Pat Riley 155-100 608 4 Phil Jackson 150-50 750 8 Red Auerbach 99-69 589 9

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