Horry Is Finding a Comfort Zone on the Floor

After some tough moments in training camp and experiencing some major pain in his knees in the early going, forward Robert Horry has emerged in December as one of the Lakers’ more consistent performers.

Horry said his improved play is a result of feeling more comfortable in the triangle offense, and especially feeling less pain in his knees, after spending the first six games on the injured list.

Coach Phil Jackson has from the beginning pointed to Horry as one of the keys to the Laker season, and used much of training camp to bark at Horry.

“Harp [Ron Harper] said that’s how he did [Toni] Kukoc, and Chip [Schaefer, the Laker athletic performance coordinator] said the same thing,” Horry said, referring to two former Bulls with the Lakers.

“For me, I was like . . . that’s not the way to get me to get fired up. It’s not happening any more, because I think he realizes I am how I am. . . . Certain people show a lot of emotion.

“He thought I show very little emotion, except when I get mad.”

In his last nine games, Horry has grabbed at least five rebounds in every game, splitting the power-forward spot with A.C. Green.

“I feel better physically, which makes a big difference in my game,” Horry said. “A lot of times in the beginning of the year, I wasn’t really comfortable, I wasn’t really happy with myself. . . .

“Even though I knew what was going on, you try and do everything right and not worry about a mistake, so I stopped worrying about that. You make a mistake, so what, just keep playing and trying to have some fun.”

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Despite a two-month hot streak to start the season, the Lakers can’t shy away from dramatic moves that could upgrade the personnel, Jackson said before Wednesday’s game.

“I don’t think you do that as a basketball team,” Jackson said. “I think you continually work on it.

“We’ve had a few of them in the past decade, but the latest example is Detroit. They had one of the great scorers in [Adrian] Dantley playing small forward for them back in the late-80s and traded for [Mark] Aguirre [during the 1988-89 season] and they were capable of finally winning the championship at that point.

“Although they were capable with Dantley, they became the championship team with Aguirre.

“So there are things that happen, even though you’ve been knocking on the door, you’re there, you have a good team, you still make the adjustments.”