Lakers Hit Oakland and Miss Again

Oh, the humanity!

The Lakers’ can’t-miss plan of beating struggling Golden State Tuesday night to build on their momentum heading into games later in the week with Phoenix and Seattle missed, which was only fitting. They missed almost everything else inside Oakland Coliseum Arena, shooting 25.5% in the first half and 40.6% in the game to fall behind by 37 points and eventually lose, 129-105, before 15,025.

“I think we were horrible tonight,” guard Eddie Jones said. “We fell right off in the first quarter (shooting 20.7%) and were in trouble. We were history from there.

“There have been bigger deficits, but this is the worst we’ve played all season. Mainly, we forced a lot of shots and didn’t play defense. Those are the things we do.”

That such a showing would happen here is no surprise--the Lakers had lost in their previous three visits by 22, 27 and 35 points.

That it would happen now is. The Lakers had won five of their previous six games and 12 of 15; the Warriors had lost 10 of 11. Then misery got company.

Jones went three of 11.

Vlade Divac missed all seven shots before intermission, said it might have been the worst half of his career, and finished making two of 11.

Tony Smith was three of nine.

Sedale Threatt, 31 of 52 (for 59.6%) in the previous six games and a team-best 51.9% overall coming in, made only three of seven shots.

“I thought we had poor selection,” Laker Coach Del Harris said. “We also had some missed (good) shots. The problem is, when you miss bad shots, it puts pressure on making the good shots.

“We were totally out of sync all night. We’re just not the kind of team that can shoot anybody out of it. We’re not that style of team. We need to get good fastbreaks, cutting, slashing. We’re not a team that can stand out on the perimeter and trade jump shots.”

Especially against a team like the Warriors, loaded with offensive weapons despite their 10-15 record. That much was on display while they were earning their first two-game winning streak in six weeks--Tim Hardaway had 20 points and 15 assists, Tom Gugliotta and Latrell Sprewell also contributed 20 points, and Rony Seikaly added 17 rebounds. In all, they finished shooting 51.5% while tying a franchise record with 12 three-point baskets.

“We played well against the pressure they put on us, the traps, and we were able to beat them and go and score and take a lot of three-pointers,” Gugliotta said. “We were hitting a good percentage of them (42.9%), which always helps.”

The next week or so for the Warriors is about clinging to whatever positive feelings remain from their 5-0 start, if any. After that, Chris Mullin, Ricky Pierce and Carlos Rogers are expected to be back, or very close to returning, from injuries and Coach Don Nelson should be on the sidelines again after his bout with viral pneumonia.

Then the questions have to be answered: Has Nelson lost the team after trading popular players Chris Webber and Billy Owens? Will Mullin show anything close to his old form so Gugliotta can move from small forward to his natural position, power forward? And most of all, will attempts at resuscitation fail, forever reducing a team that Nelson once called his best ever on paper to what-could-have-been?

This much is certain: Nelson has missed five games--the Warriors are 2-3 in that time--but has been out of the hospital since Dec. 18, and returned to the office Tuesday for the first time, spending about 90 minutes answering mail. He plans to be back at work in earnest for the Jan. 2 practice.

“He’s gaining strength every day,” said son Donnie Nelson, the interim coach. “I think (Jan. 1) is a pretty realistic day for him coming back. It’s pretty solid.”

For a day, at least, the Warriors know the feeling.

Laker Notes

Cedric Ceballos was named the NBA player of the week Tuesday, the first Laker so honored since Magic Johnson in April 1991. “I kind of got off the easy way since we only played two games,” Ceballos said. “But it’s the same with scoring 50 points--there’s a lot of players in this league, but only a few get those kinds of accomplishments.” Ceballos averaged 35.5 points and 8.5 rebounds and shot 56.9% in the two outings. . . . Reserve forward Anthony (Pig) Miller did not make the trip because of the flu. The bug also kept assistant coach Larry Drew at the team hotel. . . . The eight blocked shots by Vlade Divac in Friday’s victory over Sacramento were the most by a Laker in more than 10 years, since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had eight on Dec. 2, 1984. . . . The Lakers’ biggest loss of the season so far was by 38 points on Nov. 30 at Cleveland.