Alas, common sense is tough to practice. There are no reliable drills for it, and unlike, say, rebounding, you can't expect one player with outstanding mental toughness to pick up the slack for others. Lakers coach Del Harris must hope his players' well-chronicled ebbs of intensity are themselves on the wane.

The final game of the 1996-97 regular season is Exhibit A in examining the Lakers' psychological fitness. Needing a win over Portland to seal a share of the Pacific Division title and earn the second seed in the West, L.A. opened the game with lackadaisical defense, trailed 59-48 at the half and lost 100-96.

Harris, though, thinks his team has a head start on head work this season. With just one major off-season addition—free-agent swingman Rick Fox, formerly of Boston—the Lakers can largely skip the introductions that have kicked off recent training camps and get right to work. "It's the first time in the four years I've been here that we will have such carryover in our nucleus," the coach says. "For the first time, the real heart of our team is intact."

The heart of the heart is center Shaquille O'Neal, last season's major addition. The knee injury that sidelined Shaq from mid-February to mid-April is but a memory. He is, literally and figuratively, the center of the team. No mystery there.

The puzzle, rather, is at point guard, where Nick Van Exel remains one of the team's biggest question marks; in doubt isn't whether he can play, but whether he will. His first-quarter spat with Harris in Game 4 of L.A.'s second-round playoff series with the Jazz presented another unflattering yet vivid picture of the '96-97 Lakers. When Harris was criticized following the season, he made sure to point out that it wasn't his coaching that kept the team from running the fast break more often; it was Van Exel's unwillingness to be coached.

Lakers general manager Jerry West brokered a truce between Harris and Van Exel shortly after the season ended, and the Lakers must hope it holds. When cooperative, Van Exel is a playmaker extraordinaire, and he's running one of the NBA's deepest, most versatile lineups. The seven players that form the core—O'Neal, Van Exel, Fox; guards Eddie Jones and Kobe Bryant; and forwards Elden Campbell and Robert Horry—offer Harris numerous combinations, each of which presents a different look.

Perhaps more important, all but Fox played together last season. "We recognize the importance of playing together," says Horry, who re-signed with the Lakers over the summer for a reported $35 million over seven years. "The Jazz know each other, the Bulls know each other, and this season we'll know each other better because we were together last season."

The Lakers have proved that while they're adept at shutting themselves down, they're pretty good at shutting others down too. They held last season's opponents to a franchise-low 95.7 points per game, and with O'Neal manning the middle, they led the league in blocked shots, averaging 7.01 a night.

It's always a positive sign (not to mention a booster chair for a franchise's collective ego) when a good player is willing to shortchange his bank account to be part of the team. That's what Fox did, signing for one year and $1 million—L.A.'s salary cap exception—to play with the Lakers. More than a dozen teams showed interest in Fox; he reportedly turned down an offer from Cleveland for up to $20 million over four years.

In Bryant, the Lakers have a player with the potential to develop into a top NBA talent, maybe even an heir Jordan. First, though, he needs to become more consistent. Bryant, just 19, showed flashes of brilliance as a rookie while seeing time at three positions—both guard spots and small forward. But he struggled with shot selection and at times had difficulty getting into the offensive flow. Says Harris, "He has to shift down to where he doesn't try to dominate the ball and run the show all the time like he did in high school."

By mid-January we should know whether L.A. is headed for another lackluster year or one that could end in the gleam of a championship trophy. "We're a year older and a few mistakes wiser," Harris says. "Now we can focus on the things it takes to win a championship."

—Dana Gelin