Horry Shuffles Off to Ice Down

SACRAMENTO — The checklist, on the day he played a season-high 42 minutes, took 12 shots, got eight rebounds and had four steals:

Robert Horry pointed to his mouth, his jaw, and his thigh, all places that would require attention, starting with a trip down the hall to the ice machine.

“That’s about it tonight,” said Horry, who hadn’t played as many minutes in at least two years. “I kind of had my face in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Everything’s feeling pretty good. I’m just going to go back to the room, get naked and put some ice on everything.”

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After two series, the Lakers were still waiting for Devean George’s offense to join the postseason, and on Saturday he scored nine points in 12 minutes off the bench.

George, who appeared to have a breakthrough during the regular season, when his numbers began to catch up to his athletic ability, shot 39% from the floor and 14.3% from the arc in eight previous playoff games.

George was suffering from sore ankles, but Coach Phil Jackson used him against King forward Hedo Turkoglu, among others.

“I just think it takes a great deal of concentration sometimes, and focus, to be able to figure a game out,” Jackson said. “Right now, he’s playing half a game. He’s playing good defensively for us, but offensively he’s not there yet.

“We expect to get something out of him this playoffs. The last one, the Spurs did a good job and he didn’t respond.”

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A lot of the trash-talking before the series was attributed to Rick Fox, who had the gumption to predict a Laker victory.

“We were able to back up what we said to begin with,” he said. “If you know what I said, you know I said we’d win the series. But, that’s only one game. We have a lot to finish.”

Tim Brown

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Norm Pattiz, the radio mogul and longtime Laker courtside fan whose devotion has earned him a championship ring, missed his first playoff game in recent memory Saturday.

Pattiz was in New York receiving the Freedom of Speech Award from the National Assn. of Talk Radio. Although the award was given to Pattiz for his work in creating an Arabic language radio network that airs Voice of America broadcasts throughout the Middle East, it also could have been given to him for his constant cheerleading. He’s the white-haired guy who stands and bangs his program at Staples Center while sitting a couple of seats down from Laker Coach Phil Jackson.

“I told them the only way I would accept the award is if they set up some televisions near the podium so I could watch the game during breaks in the ceremony,” Pattiz said.

Bill Plaschke