Lack of Hustle Worse Than Loss

For the second time in four games, Laker Coach Del Harris ripped his team not so much for getting outscored as getting outworked, evident again Sunday night in the 113-107 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers at the Great Western Forum.

“It’s a hard loss to take, once again,” Harris said. “It’s just like the Boston game, when an opponent down in the standings came in with more energy after loose balls, the up-and-down action, than we did.

“You could tell in the first quarter that we did not come with urgency to the task.”

So could his players.

“You can just sense it,” Nick Van Exel said after the latest stumble against a lesser team. “You just know when everybody is ready to play and everybody is juiced up. It was definitely different than Friday night [when they beat the Atlanta Hawks]. If we want to be a better team, we’ve got to get out of it.”

Shaquille O’Neal sat out 34% of the games in 1995-96, 38% in 1996-97 and will sit out at least 27% this season, and that’s if he doesn’t miss another game. Asked about those who suggest he is injury prone, O’Neal said: “Would it bother me? No. I’d just punch them in the face.” . . . Van Exel’s run of consecutive double-figure assist games ended at six. He had nine versus the 76ers and missed his seventh in a row by being shut out in that category in his nine fourth-quarter minutes . . . The four blocked shots by Rick Fox on Friday tied a career high.