Stopping the knock: Lower compression and ported heads...

"but during the engine operation with a solid cam, those events will be altered buy the valve lash, and the valve will be opening later and closing earlier."
I think that particular sentence phrasing was confusing me...
By decreasing lash you open the valve earlier and close it later. Increasing lash will open the valve later and close it earlier.
Increasing lash means a slight delay before the valve begins to move (as opposed to where the manufacturer intended for it to begin moving). That also means the valve will hit the seat earlier and seal the cylinder when the piston is earlier in the compression stroke (closer to bottom dead center) so there's more volume to compress and cranking pressures go up.
To me the mention of the valve timing changing inferred that valve timing was affected - it is, but it's a finite linear change on the opening and closing ramps once the lash distance is taken up.