Lakers cast off, sink

Lamar Odom was wheezing. Derek Fisher was hobbling around on a bad hoof. Sasha Vujacic and Ronny Turiaf couldn’t find the basket.

And that was only the beginning of the dire news for the Lakers, who started Friday evening tied for second place but finished it with the fourth-best record in the Western Conference.

The Lakers lost to the Memphis Grizzlies, 114-111, at Staples Center, their second loss in as many games against a woeful team, a fact that has seriously cramped their attempt to be a player in the West.

“For whatever reason, we like to make things difficult for ourselves,” Fisher said. “We definitely have done that now. We’ll see what we’re made of.”

Kobe Bryant looked at what was unfolding and tried to take it upon himself to beat the hapless Grizzlies (19-53), scoring a season-high 53 points. It wasn’t enough.

The desperation of the Lakers could easily be traced to their franchise-record 45 three-point attempts. The old record was 44 in a December 2006 overtime game against Washington.

They made 15 three-pointers against the Grizzlies but couldn’t get one to fall in the final seconds.

Odom missed an open three-point attempt from the right corner with the Lakers down two points and 22.9 seconds left. He also had a three-point attempt blocked in the final seconds.

With the Grizzlies up two, Rudy Gay tried to intentionally miss a free throw with 0.9 seconds left, but actually made it, giving the Lakers one last chance.

After a timeout, Luke Walton tried to throw an inbounds pass from the side to Bryant a split second before getting a five-second violation, but the Grizzlies knocked the ball away, ending the game.

Bryant bent down and put his head in his hands, obviously unhappy with the result. That’s the West these days – in control on Wednesday and in trouble by Friday night.

The day didn’t start well for the Lakers, who were already down three players when two more news items emanated from the trainer’s room.

An MRI exam earlier Friday revealed that Fisher had a partially torn tendon in his right foot, an injury that typically requires six to eight weeks of rest, though he will try to keep playing.

Fisher, who was hurt while trying to push off the foot Wednesday against Charlotte, had four points in 24 minutes against Memphis. He was averaging 12.9 points and two assists coming into the game.

On a smaller note, Odom was sent home from the Friday morning shoot-around after showing up with an upper-respiratory infection. He had two points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists against Memphis.

That the game was close wouldn’t be that much of a surprise, seeing as how the Lakers were dragging, and the Grizzlies lost by a slim 100-99 margin in a Jan. 13 game here. Andrew Bynum was injured in the third quarter of that game and hasn’t played since, although he hasn’t given up hope of returning from a knee injury for a handful of regular-season games.

“Hopefully,” he said. “I probably need a few games.”

Friday also marked the return of Kwame Brown and Javaris Crittenton to face their former team, although only one of them played.

Crittenton, who went to Memphis with Brown as part of the Pau Gasol trade, has had decent games for the Grizzlies – 22 points against Houston, 17 against Chicago – but was relatively quiet against the Lakers, finishing with six points in 18 minutes.

Crittenton was, however, given a warm round of applause when he checked into the game in the first quarter. Brown’s name was never mentioned by public-address announcer Lawrence Tanter because he did not play.

An unrestricted free agent after the season, Brown did not get off the bench for a fifth consecutive game, though there was a derisive “We want Kwame” chant toward the end of the third quarter.

Gasol did not play because of a sprained left ankle, although he might return Sunday against Washington.

Meanwhile, the Lakers are also seemingly day-to-day.

Bryant tried to resuscitate them, making 19 of 37 shots and taking 10 rebounds.

But many other Lakers had rough shooting nights. Turiaf had six points on three-for-10 shooting and Vujacic had 14 points on five-for-17 shooting.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com