Jones Well Aware That Rider Won’t Be Easy

The weigh-in has been canceled for fear of the result.

“I’m scared to look,” Eddie Jones said, smiling.

Portland’s Isaiah Rider is a difficult enough assignment for shooting guards who can match his bulk--Mitch Richmond, Clyde Drexler, Jim Jackson--but Jones gets him starting Friday night with a difference somewhere around 25 pounds, give or take a workout. Strangely, that means one of the Lakers’ biggest concerns on defense as the first-round series against the Trail Blazers is about to open concerns one of their best defenders.

“Two months ago, I was in the mid-190s,” Jones said. “Shaq [O’Neal] went down and I started to play even more minutes. Maybe I’m in the 80s now. Eighty-nine.”

Rider is listed at 215 pounds. The problem is compounded in that the Trail Blazers’ small forward, Clifford Robinson, is 6 feet 10, so any notion of the Lakers putting Robert Horry or Jerome Kersey on Rider is quickly dismissed because that would only create a mismatch at another position. And, obviously, an all-star such as Jones won’t be taken out.

So Jones braces for being posted up with regularity, while also comforted in that the Lakers will send double-team help.

“They said the guy got the best of me,” Jones said of Rider, who averaged 19.5 points and shot 50% in the four regular-season contests, compared to 16.1 and 46.4% against the league. “And I don’t like guys getting the best of me.

“It’s my man. Everybody knows Eddie is a good defender. Eddie doesn’t like guys getting the best of him. The guy has embarrassed me in a few games.”

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About 22 tickets for Laker playoff games at the Forum were stolen from United Parcel Service, said team spokesman Bob Steiner.

Fans are being warned the filched tickets--which belong to season seat holders--will not be honored.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.