Lakers Get Aired Out

Lakers: Van Exel, who thought he should have taken last shot of regulation, says he can't co-exist with Harris.

SALT LAKE CITY — The season was over, and, if you listened to Nick Van Exel, so was the tempestuous relationship between Nick Van Exel and Del Harris.

With a tired voice and frustrated words Monday night, Van Exel just about pronounced an end to his rocky relationship with the Laker coach and suggested that Harris is far too worried about outside pressure to properly coach this team.

Asked in the wake of the frenzied finish to Game 5 and the Laker season, if he could co-exist with Harris, Van Exel shook his head and said: "I don't think so."

If this was his last game as a Laker, VanExel played it out to the fullest, scoring a team-high 26 points in 51 minutes of passionate action--but, as he noted, he went shotless in the deciding moments of the game, including the play at the end of regulation that Harris called for Kobe Bryant, who shot the first of his four airballs.

Van Exel disputed Harris' decision.

"I fell like I wanted to take the last shot," Van Exel said. "But he wanted to go to Kobe. He's going to be a great player in this league, but maybe the season caught up with him a little on those threes, he came up a little short."

Was putting the season on his shoulders a lot to ask an 18-year-old, who went on to shoot two more airballs in the overtime