No May merriment for this team

Save your time, don’t bother checking the conference standings, tiebreakers, remaining schedules or anything else. The Lakers’ 115-107 loss to the Phoenix Suns told you all you needed to know about this team’s playoff picture. It’s bleak.

For a team that still needs victories to clinch a postseason berth and hasn’t beaten a team that matters since February, the Lakers provided zero evidence that they’re ready to do anything in May.

Of the three possible Lakers opponents -- Dallas, Phoenix and San Antonio -- the Suns would seem to be the most favorable matchup. The Lakers took them to seven games in the playoffs last year, and gave them a good fight in a loss at Phoenix last month.

But if the Lakers couldn’t win this game at home, only four days after the San Antonio Spurs provided a blueprint on how to beat the Suns, it’s not going to happen four times in seven games.

True, the Lakers didn’t have Kwame Brown. Coach Phil Jackson said the sprained left ankle that has kept Brown out of the last three games might sideline him for another week or two.

But if the Lakers’ success is that tied into Kwame Brown ... well, that doesn’t bode well either, does it?

Andrew Bynum hasn’t done anything in Brown’s place, failing to assert himself on offense and not making the adjustments on defense. As Jackson said, “It hasn’t worked well for him so far.”

Jackson called two timeouts in less than two minutes at the start of the third quarter and used both of them to chastise Bynum. Later, he yelled at him: “No mistakes.” No high standards or anything.

But the Lakers have been operating with no margin for error lately. Basically, Kobe Bryant needs to make every shot.

His 34 points Sunday weren’t enough to get it done. Six of the Lakers’ last seven wins came when Bryant scored 43 points or more. Can you say “overly dependent”? Bryant senses the same things everyone else does, that they can win only if he puts up Chamberlainian numbers.

“It seems like that,” Bryant said. “I’d rather that not be the case, but it seems like that. Hopefully we can kind of break out of that funk and have guys step up and make contributions.”

Bryant lamented the struggles on defense, but Jackson’s philosophy has always been that defense starts with a well-organized offense, and right now the Lakers aren’t running the triangle with consistent effort and energy. Everyone has to be willing to sacrifice a bit for it to be successful, but when it isn’t working or players don’t make shots, it’s easy to lose faith.

“It’s stagnant at times,” said Luke Walton, who shot three for nine Sunday. “This team knows what it takes to win. It’s frustrating right now, because we think we should be winning, we’re just not doing it.”

The Lakers aren’t doing much of anything right now, including winning. They’ve dropped five of seven, and face the surging Nuggets in Denver tonight. Go ahead and make it six of eight.

Why do you have to be so negative, J.A.? There must have been some good things.

Well, Ronny Turiaf hustled and grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds to go with 19 points.

Oh, and Smush Parker had a good time. No, really.

He took 19 shots, made 10, scored 25 points and said, “I had a ball. We lost, but I had fun.”

Good for Smush. Glad someone in Lakerland enjoyed himself this Easter Sunday.

But it just shows how disconnected he is from the team. Parker sulked in a victory at Seattle because he sat the final 16 minutes, and lately he has been more of a problem than a solution to the Lakers’ woes. Sunday he got his minutes, he got his shots and the Lakers weren’t any better off for it. Time for the next problem.

Jackson has a Hall of Fame induction speech to write, and he’s supposed to be concerned about the feelings of one Smush Parker?

For the most part Parker did more good than bad Sunday. He helped Bryant carry the scoring load in the first quarter. He even made shots in the fourth quarter. But he also made the crucial mistake of the game.

With the Lakers down by three points and nine minutes remaining, the New York native got a little too Rucker Park, putting the ball behind his back on a fastbreak, which only gave Steve Nash more time to set up and draw a charge. It represented the last chance the Lakers had to make it a one-point game.

The latter part of the fourth quarter consisted of the Suns playing at their pace, putting up shots (as the book title goes) in seven seconds or less, running even after made shots, spreading the court, suckering the Lakers into leaving shooters open.

The Suns won even though Shawn Marion wasn’t much of a factor. They had far too many other weapons for the Lakers.

This would be a playoff mismatch, a five-game series at most. And it looks as if it wouldn’t even have the animosity that emerged in last year’s playoffs.

Bryant unclenched his teeth long enough to say some complimentary things about Raja Bell in the postgame interview, then they had a cordial exchange when Bell passed Bryant and his family outside the Lakers’ locker room.

Maybe Bell can send Bryant and the Lakers postcards when the playoffs go on without them.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.