Coaching Security Is the Difference

The first week of February finds each of the town’s pro basketball teams at a crossroads, and believe it or not they both can stand to learn something from one another.

The Clippers can see the benefits of hiring a big-time coach. And the Lakers can take solace in knowing that, no matter how badly things have gone the last couple of weeks, they’re still better off than the Clippers.

The biggest difference between the teams right now is in the commitment to coaching.

Laker owner Jerry Buss can see one dividend from his $30-million investment in Phil Jackson: peace.

Can you imagine the ruckus if the Lakers hit a skid of six losses in nine games under Del Harris? There would be speculation that Harris wouldn’t be around next week, let alone next season.

But Phil Jackson isn’t going anywhere any time soon. He knows it, the players know it, so it isn’t an issue. They can focus on basketball, and Friday night they focused on kicking the Utah Jazz all over Staples Center.

Their play throughout the course of the season shows what happens when players buy into their coach’s plan, as opposed to a Clipper team that never got with Ford.

To make it worse, the Clippers knew Ford had no juice, so they dogged it on him. If their spirited play during the two games assistant Jim Todd ran things while Ford was home with a back injury in December didn’t signal the end of Ford’s tenure, their comments about how much happier they were with Todd sure did.

In this week’s games against Golden State and Phoenix, the Clippers went so deep in the tank they needed scuba gear. In the process, they sank Ford.

It’s a setup only Donald Sterling could love. He gets Todd at a bargain rate for the rest of this season, the Clippers will probably play just well enough to justify keeping Todd around for next season. Then Maurice Taylor and Derek Anderson will escape via free agency, the Clippers will plod along to another losing record and Sterling will look for his next coach. Eventually he’s going to spend more on fulfilling contracts for former coaches than he would on keeping a good young coach around.

The Lakers are focusing on personnel right now.

There was one interesting aspect to their embarrassingly easy 113-67 victory over the Jazz Friday. In the first quarter, the only quarter that mattered, they scored 33 points with Glen Rice attempting only one field goal.

When things are going right they don’t need his scoring punch. Because when things are going right for the Lakers, it’s a very simple process.

The ball goes from Kobe to Shaq and Shaq to Kobe, they play defense and they win.

That was the case in the first quarter, when Kobe Bryant had nine points and four assists, Shaquille O’Neal had nine points and four blocked shots, the Lakers shot 65% and held the Jazz to 24% shooting.

Rice is still a nice option to have when things aren’t going quite so well. The belief here still holds that Lakers shouldn’t deal Rice merely to deal him, that there simply aren’t enough sexy names out there to justify firing the Lakers’ most tradable bullet right now.

On the current go-round of the rumor mill, a rugged big man (Philadelphia’s Matt Geiger and Tyrone Hill have popped up recently), would make more sense than Toni Kukoc. Kukoc helps offensively, but he wouldn’t solve the defensive and rebounding woes that have been the Lakers’ downfall in their recent losses.

And now that Maverick owner Mark Cuban bought the Dennis Rodman raffle ticket, the Worm’s off the market.

Darn, what a shame. The Lakers really could have used a whacked-out guy who has played a quarter of a season since 1998 and now considers partying his top agenda.

At least we know that things weren’t so bad during the Lakers’ slump that they had to resort to something as drastic as signing Rodman.

They’re actually remarkably calm. Jackson was in a jovial (he’d like that word) mood and there was laughter in every corner of the locker room before the game.

That doesn’t mean Jackson is above zinging his team.

He said that, if the playoffs started today, “We wouldn’t be a playoff-ready team.”

And even though the Lakers’ 35-11 record is tied with Portland for the best in the league, he said his goal for the second half of the season is: “A better record than the first half of the season. That’s what I expect them to do.”

Friday’s blowout didn’t signal the Lakers are cured any more than the previous week’s victory over Milwaukee was enough to keep the Lakers from lapsing into back-to-back losses at Houston and San Antonio.

What the Lakers still need is a victory at San Antonio or Portland, to show that they can do it should the need arise in the playoffs.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.