Lakers don't have history on their side in return to Utah

We're not only not in Lakerdom anymore, we're about as far away as we can get.

This is the Anti-Lakerdom, the place and the time of year when visiting Lakers find the ground giving way under them, to the delight of local fans.

They could be great teams like the Showtime Lakers who had four titles when the young Karl Malone-John Stockton team jumped them in 1988 . . . or merely billed as great like the Shaq-Kobe Lakers whom the veteran Malone-Stockton teams swept here in 1997 and 1998 . . . or rising powers like the current Lakers, whom the young Deron Williams Jazz knocked off twice last week.

The bottom line is, this is where Lakers come to have their heads handed to them in spring, with eight losses in the nine playoff games they've played here.

The lone win was Game 4 in 1988 -- after the defending champions, whom Lakers Coach Pat Riley had guaranteed would repeat and who'd never been behind in a second round in the '80s, found themselves trailing a bunch of upstarts, 2-1.

Malone was 24, Stockton 26. The Jazz center was 7-4, 290-pound Mark Eaton, who had rarely played at UCLA but made Kareem Abdul-Jabbar look like a small forward.

After being upset in Game 2 in the Forum and Game 3 in the Salt Palace, Riley issued a shocking reprimand to his own big three, whom he'd always taken care to thank for his good fortune, Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and James Worthy.

"I've always said I've come with these guys and I'll go down with 'em," Riley said, "but I can't let other guys on the team down by going with people who aren't going to make an effort."

Skewered in the Los Angeles press, the Lakers won Game 4, 113-100, on May 15, 1988, and glared at the Lakers press corps afterward, just as Riley intended.

That was 20 years and one day ago and nothing has worked since.

In the Lakers' next visit four days later in Game 6, the Jazz beat them, 108-80.

Riley said he was unhappy his players lost by only 28, noting, "I wish it was 50. I didn't want them to feel good about anything. I wish it was total."

The Lakers went on to win Game 7 in 1988, which, fortunately for them, was in the Forum.

The players, coaches and building have changed, but the Lakers, still lords of all they survey, are back for another Game 6 against the Jazz, still upstarts.

Fortunately for the Lakers, Game 7, if (when?) necessary, will be in Staples Center.