Lakers’ Metta World Peace and Mike Brown clear the air

Tomorrow’s story tonight …

Metta World Peace expressed concerns the other day about Lakers coach Mike Brown’s shuffling of the rotation. World Peace said more consistency would help him and the team play better and win more games.

After all, Brown used first Devin Ebanks then Matt Barnes then World Peace (the former Ron Artest) as the Lakers’ starting small forward so far this season. Brown said he has settled on World Peace as his starter.

World Peace also said Brown relies too much on statistics to determine his rotation.

In an attempt to ensure they are on the same page, Brown met with World Peace at the Lakers’ morning shootaround Tuesday. They talked and cleared the air and the player and the coach each said everything was fine.

“The main thing is just winning,” World Peace said before the Lakers defeated the Atlanta Hawks 86-78. “The main thing here is everybody wants to win. That’s a good sign. I was not frustrated. It was not frustration. I was just looking for consistency.”

Brown, in his first season as the Lakers’ coach, said he understood World Peace’s concerns. He also reserved the right to make decisions, change his mind and do all he believed to be right in order to make sure the Lakers are best prepared to play.

“I’m not afraid to make a change,” Brown said. “I’m the coach. I make the decisions. I’ll make a change if I feel I need to. I talked not just to him but a lot of guys on the team because I have changed the minutes.

“God bless anybody who has walked into a new situation and after two games figures out what rotation he wants to have for the rest of the year. … If I were a stats guy, Metta wouldn’t be playing at all. If I were him, I would be frustrated.”