He’s Ready to Phil It Up With His New Mantra

I saw in the newspaper where Phil Jackson said the Lakers were going to play their hardest in these final two regular-season games, because isn’t that what the fans deserve?

So I asked him before Tuesday’s game if this was a new team policy.

I’ve always thought if the Lakers played hard every game they would finish 82-0 and Phil would be coaching the All-Star game at the break.

And after listening to the Lakers talk about the playoffs all season long and their ability to turn it on when they want, I guess deep down they must feel the same way because they keep telling us they’ll take care of business when it counts.

(I just hope they weren’t really trying hard against Portland Sunday, because that would be a bad sign.)

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ANYWAY I thought it was exciting news the Lakers were going to play hard against Denver, because we don’t always get advance warning they’re going to give it their all and I wanted to see what it looked like.

The Nuggets went ahead, 2-0, but I had confidence our guys would rally because of what Phil had said -- that and the fact the Clippers had beaten these same mopes by 22 the other night.

Denver came back to take a 4-3 lead, but then Rick Fox made a three-point basket, which told me he’s really decided to start trying. I couldn’t wait to see the difference in Samaki Walker.

Denver has lost to its last six opponents by an average of 14.5 points and the Clippers also just beat Golden State, so it was a little curious why the Lakers chose these two games to really pour it on -- Jack Nicholson didn’t even bother to come -- but then reading what Phil had to say to reporters earlier this week, he seemed surprised anyone would question the team’s effort.

“Don’t you think it’s the responsibility of us as a basketball club to do as well as we possibly can,” Jackson told reporters the other day, “just for the sake of possibly having home-court advantage, which is not only a benefit to our fans, but also to our organization financially?”

Well, of course I do, but the Lakers might be entering the playoffs seeded No. 6 and playing series after series after series -- if successful -- on the road, and how do they explain that?

(Fox just made his third three-point basket in the first half -- imagine if this guy played like that all season long.)

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FROM NOW on, though, it has to be in Phil we trust.

He has won nine of the last 12 NBA championships without ever getting off the bench, and I guess I wouldn’t want to give up my seat either if I had the opportunity to watch Kobe, Shaq, Michael and Scottie put on a show. Obviously, he knows just what to do, or not do.

He tells the inconsistent Lakers to play consistently hard against Denver, for example, and they score 42 first-quarter points, which is more points than they have scored in the first quarter of any game this season.

He tells the media before the game he’s “astounded” Kobe has made the decision not to put up points in the first half recently after he chastised him earlier for scoring too many, and he says the team is going to need more points out of Kobe in the first half. So Kobe scores 20 in the first quarter.

He tells me anything now, and of course I’ll buy it: In Phil we trust.

It’s not going to be easy, though. Everyone in the country seems to have the Lakers pegged as the team to beat, but we’ve seen them play. The other day Rasheed Wallace made a three-point basket to take the home court away from the motivated Lakers and Phil says later, “If they didn’t hit that shot, what would you be saying about how great our momentum is?”

Sure, and if Robert Horry doesn’t make that miracle shot against Sacramento last season, maybe the Lakers are hoping to dethrone the Kings this season.

In Phil we trust ... in Phil we trust ... I have to keep reminding myself he’ll have all the answers, which goes along with the universal contention that things will be different for the Lakers once the playoffs start and no one will be able to beat this team four times in a seven-game series.

(The Lakers had 103 points at the end of three quarters -- they really were playing hard.)

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I WONDER if the Dodgers are trying as hard as they can.

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ONE MORE game to go and Paul Sunderland will complete his first regular season as only the second play-by-play announcer in Laker team history.

“Getting off the plane at 4 a.m. in Memphis -- I realize now Chick [Hearn] had to be the toughest human on earth to do what he did every year and to do it so professionally and well,” Sunderland said.

And so after witnessing 81 Laker games to date -- will the Lakers win a fourth-consecutive title?

“Yes, I think they will,” Sunderland said. “I think Chick would say no, but we’re different people. I think the Lakers have more upside than any other team in the playoffs. They’re not even close to functioning at 100% yet.”

That will be Phil’s job, of course, to fix that ... I’m sure he has just been waiting for the playoffs to start.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Randall Shimkus:

“Do you actually believe Anaheim is more steeped in hockey tradition than Detroit? I’ve been to both cities, and believe me, there is NO hockey tradition in Anaheim. It seems to me, (when you write in your column) that everyone in Anaheim ‘bought their sweaters and sweatshirts this week,’ they’re just jumping on the bandwagon and they’re not really die-hard fans.”

Geez, I never thought of that.

T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com.