Life Without Kareem Isn’t Easy : Lakers: Riley concedes that struggling offense can be attributed to absence of Abdul-Jabbar.

Of course, the Lakers miss Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Don’t be absurd and suggest otherwise. He is, after all, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, and even aging 7-foot centers are coveted by teams.

But only now is the degree to which the Lakers are affected by Abdul-Jabbar’s absence becoming fully apparent.

After analyzing the Lakers’ stilted half-court offense Wednesday, Coach Pat Riley admitted that the loss of Abdul-Jabbar is part of the reason the team is averaging 8.3 fewer points and shooting nearly four percentage points lower--50.2% to 46.4%--than last season.

Although the Lakers have the NBA’s best record at 20-6, three games better than at this time last season, they have struggled offensively nearly all season--particularly in two recent narrow victories over Minnesota and Sacramento.

“A lot of people don’t recognize that,” Riley said. “But Kareem was still a big part last season. He gave us that big target.”

Although Abdul-Jabbar’s skills had diminished by last season, he still was a presence in the low post, another worry for opposing defenses. Now, teams are double-teaming James Worthy and Magic Johnson in the low post, instead of playing single coverage as they did when Abdul-Jabbar was around.

As a result, the Lakers are not penetrating inside as before and are settling for perimeter shots.

“The target down low simply is not as big now,” Riley said. “Kareem was a big target; he knew how to get open and get the ball. There’s a lot to be said about that. Even though he wasn’t as productive, he was there, and teams paid attention to him. I also think our (inside) passing is not as good (without Abdul-Jabbar).”

The Lakers said in training camp that, without Abdul-Jabbar, they would be free to run the fast break more often and have open lanes for the inside games of Worthy and others. That mostly has not happened, and the Lakers have become bogged down in their half-court offense.

Before practice Wednesday, Riley spent a half-hour with his players in front of a video screen, examining the offense and showing where the breakdowns have occurred.

“I saw 20 situations (Tuesday night in a 104-102 victory over the Kings) where our offense suffered from the basic fundamentals of bad decision-making,” Riley said. “That includes the bad pass, the lack of movement, sloppy screens, those types of things. There are so many little things that can lead to mistakes.

“I think the half-court offense is going to take hours and hours of work before we get better. We’re down in our field-goal percentage and our points (per game), but that is OK if we can find some consistency in effort, because our defense is good. We set such high standards that the coaching staff feels they should play well every game--not necessarily win, but be efficient and productive.”

Without referring specifically to Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson also spoke about the Lakers’ lack of an inside game after Tuesday’s victory over Sacramento.

“It’s difficult to run some of the things we did before,” Johnson said. “James is a low-post man, but we don’t have other people who can post up. We’re trying to get the offense from him inside while he’s being double-teamed. I guess we’re going to have to do some other things.”

The Lakers, of course, also experienced some problems in their half-court offense last season, even with Abdul-Jabbar anchoring the low post.

But Abdul-Jabbar’s sky hook remained the last option when all other offensive patterns failed and the shot clock dwindled, something the Lakers don’t have this season.

So, what to do?

“I don’t know,” Riley said. “It’s new to us.”