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Notebook Arena football game interferes with Pacers' practice
Posted: Sunday June 18, 2000 08:52 PM
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) -- The score on Sunday: Avengers 1, Pacers 0. The Los Angeles Avengers, an expansion Arena Football League team, played the Florida Bobcats on Sunday in Staples Center. That forced the Indiana Pacers to hold their workouts early in the morning at the Lakers' practice gym. The alternate venue angered Indiana coach Larry Bird, who wanted his team to get another chance to practice at Staples. The Pacers shot just 39.6 percent in their two losses there to open the series, and many said the cavernous, heavily ornamented building was a difficult place to get comfortable. "It would have been nice to practice over there to get a pretty good feel for it," Bird said. "The background makes it harder to shoot there." Bird said he loved shooting in the Great Western Forum during his playing career with the Boston Celtics, chiefly because of the arena's famously dark lighting. Among his least favorite places to play was the Pontiac Silverdome and "any other dome," he said. The Pacers still held a strenuous workout Sunday morning, with most players sweating profusely at the end of it. Bird said the extra day between games 5 and 6 wasn't a big advantage because of the long flight Indiana made on Saturday. The Pacers chose to arrive a day earlier than they would for a regular-season road game. "It wasn't really a day off," Bird said. "By game time [on Monday], none of this will matter." While the Pacers were working up a sweat, the Lakers trickled into the same gym more than an hour later than their scheduled practice time.
Unlucky sevenThe Lakers still claim they expected to be partying on Sunday instead of practicing, but now that the Finals are still going on, the Lakers don't intend to put off the celebration any longer.While no one on Sunday was guaranteeing victory in Monday's Game 6, most of the Lakers -- who lead the best-of-seven series 3-2 -- said they would be very surprised to face a second straight Game 7. "No one wants a seventh game in a situation like this," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "The reality is we know seventh games are difficult situations for us. We'll have to play hard. There hasn't been a Game 7 [in the Finals] since Houston-New York [in 1994]. We're going to do our best to close it out earlier." Los Angeles realizes it holds just a 3-6 record in potential closeout games this year, and the Lakers walked this tightrope just days ago. Los Angeles led Portland 3-1 in the Western Conference finals before losing twice to force a seventh game. The Lakers trailed by 15 points in the fourth quarter of that game, and they admitted that only a collapse by the Trail Blazers, who missed 13 straight shots late in the game -- allowed their season to continue. "We're not even looking at what we might have to do in a seventh game," Robert Horry said. "We need this to be over on Monday. We don't want them to come in here and beat us in our building and start thinking they've got a shot at us."
Reggie vs. RickTwo days after they nearly came to blows in Game 5, Lakers enforcer Rick Fox had more to say about Reggie Miller.Miller elbowed Fox in the back after the whistle early in the fourth quarter Friday night, and Fox responded by shoving and confronting the Pacers shooting guard. The two received technical fouls but continued yapping at each other for nearly a minute as teammates intervened. "I have a problem with individuals who say brave things but don't ... back them up," Fox said. "You don't see them when they're down by 20 points. It's a lot easier to be brave at home, and it's a lot easier to be brave when you're up by 20. "He has no problem putting an elbow in my back when he's up by 20. I guess when you have somebody down, you try to keep them down, but they got some cheap shots in there." After Fox and Miller separated, Indiana's Mark Jackson picked up the argument and earned his own technical. But Fox said his beef isn't with Jackson or Jalen Rose or any other Indiana player he has crossed in the series. It's just Reggie. "I don't think he's the most loved individual in the league, but he doesn't want to be," Fox said. "[In Game 6], I expect him to flop and bait the referees and to do all of his usual antics. He does a good job of creating the illusion he has been fouled."
New homeThe Pacers are staying in a different hotel than they did during their first trip to Los Angeles during the finals.The old hotel was in Santa Monica, a treacherous one-hour drive away from Staples Center. One of Indiana's team buses got stuck in the traffic before Game 1 and arrived just 65 minutes before the scheduled tipoff. "We don't like one-hour bus rides," Bird said. "Five minutes is the max."
Loose ballsIn addition to O'Neal and Bryant, Indiana's Jalen Rose was among the spectators at Saturday's title fight between Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya at Staples Center. Though Mosley was awarded a split decision, Rose, a big boxing fan, said he thought De La Hoya won the fight. "I wonder what one of those judges was looking at," Rose said with a laugh. ... While his teammates spread out around the Lakers' practice court to speak to reporters, Indiana's Chris Mullin talked while riding an exercise bike in the corner of the gym. Minutes later, Los Angeles' Brian Shaw did the same thing on the same bike while the Lakers met the media. ... Indiana forward Austin Croshere, whose career took off this season after he spent the summer intensely working out in his native Southern California, will be doing the same thing this summer. "I've talked to the martial-arts instructor, the track coach. I've got everything set up," said Croshere, who could also become a free agent this summer.
Quote of the Day"Right now, I'm kind of leaning toward not going. There's a lot I'd like to do this summer -- spend time with my family, get married, relax. I haven't given it that much thought, really. I'll give it some more thought after the season." -- Bryant, on his chances of accepting an invitation to play for the United States in the Sydney Olympics.
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