UNEASY LIES THE CROWN

As the Lakers trudged through the first 6 1/2 weeks of the season, they insisted that there was plenty of time to work out whatever problems they had.

They were right. But not anymore.

The presidential election is finally over, and so are the NBA primaries. It’s time for the Lakers to show what they’ve got.

The Lakers (15-9) have 24 games in the books; that’s almost a third of the season. It’s also about the same point at which they began to establish themselves as championship material last season.

A little more than a year ago, the Lakers were 15-5 and trailed the Sacramento Kings in the Pacific Division race after losing a game in Sacramento. Then the Lakers won their next 16 games and all of a sudden began drawing comparisons to one of the greatest NBA teams of all time, the 1971-72 Lakers, and its 33-game winning streak.

That 16-game streak began with a victory over the Vancouver Grizzlies . . . who just happen to be in town tonight. If the Lakers want to repeat as champions, they can start by repeating a little history.

Sure, the Lakers will be without Shaquille O’Neal for a game while he dons the world’s largest cap and gown and receives his diploma from Louisiana State. But if the Lakers can’t beat the Grizzlies at home anyway, then they are only one knee injury away from missing the playoffs entirely.

There are enough tests on the upcoming schedule--including a game at Dallas the night after a game in Houston, a home game against Portland and a game at Phoenix--to provide an accurate gauge of the Lakers’ strengths and weaknesses.

So far, we’ve mostly seen their weaknesses.

They haven’t resolved the Kobe Quandary, the Isaiah Rider experiment is coming back mostly negative, the team’s defense hasn’t been up to last year’s standards, and O’Neal isn’t 100%.

The Lakers already have lost back-to-back games three times. It happened only three times all of last season, and the last two were in the final two games, after the Lakers had already clinched the league’s best record.

The Lakers have lost four of their past five games. But you all know what Jackson does when the Lakers hit a lull and nothing goes their way: He doesn’t call timeout.

“I don’t like to be the one that’s the relation tool or the person that accommodates the players,” Jackson said recently. “I think the team does that.”

Jackson even canceled a shoot-around in Portland on Wednesday morning to let the players meditate, marinate and find their own solutions.

That didn’t work, either.

Now it’s time for Jackson to step forward. The team wants him to do something about Bryant’s hostile takeover of the offense. At least O’Neal does. Jackson already talked to Bryant a few weeks ago. His primary concern was whether Bryant was driving into traffic or taking his shots from good spots where he can get the ball to other teammates when necessary.

Jackson liked the results after the chat: Bryant shot above 50% in each of the first four games of December and went on a scoring spree, averaging 42 points.

Yet, even as Bryant is taking his game to the top of the scoring list and establishing himself as the league’s best shooting guard, he needs to learn when to say when.

Although it’s much more exciting to watch Bryant hanging in the air like Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix” than to see O’Neal pound away inside, the Lakers are better when they’re boring and the offense runs through O’Neal.

The other problem is that when Bryant rushes his shots, it hastens the tempo of the entire game. A quick pull-up jumper becomes a long rebound, which becomes a fastbreak the other way.

One reason the Lakers were so effective on defense last year, when they ranked first in opponents’ field-goal percentage and sixth in points allowed, was they used their deliberate offense to control the pace of the game.

Now the Lakers are 26th in the league in points allowed (98.3 per game) and 18th in opponents’ field-goal percentage (44.5%).

On the other hand, if Bryant wasn’t making so many of those spectacular shots, the Lakers would really be in trouble.

O’Neal is struggling to repeat last year’s most-valuable-player performance. His sore Achilles’ tendon and left ankle keep him from his usual explosiveness. He’s laying up shots that he usually dunks, he’s missing short jumpers and hooks that he usually makes.

It’s difficult to recall O’Neal having so many off nights by this stage in the season. But he suffered through those back-to-back clunkers in Texas, where he shot a combined 13 for 32 in losses to Houston and San Antonio. He was 11 for 28 against Philadelphia, then came that seven-for-21 game Wednesday night in Portland.

And his free-throw shooting is worse than ever at 38.7%. Maybe with his general studies degree in hand he’ll actually get some free throws in the general vicinity of the hoop.

Everyone else should study the Lakers for the next couple of weeks--to get an idea of what to expect in the season’s second half.

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Measure of the Men

Comparing the starting lineup of this year’s Lakers with last year’s championship team. 2000-2001 statistics are through 24 games. 1999-2000 are season statistics.

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2000-2001 1999-2000 Shaquille O’Neal Shaquille O’Neal Scoring Avg. 25.5 29.7 Rebound Avg. 13.2 13.6 Field Goal % .549 .574 Free Throw % .387 .524 POWER FORWARD Horace Grant A.C. Green Scoring Avg. 8.3 5.0 Rebound Avg. 7.3 5.9 Field Goal % .470 .447 Free Throw % .778 .695 SMALL FORWARD Rick Fox Glen Rice Scoring Avg. 6.1 15.9 Rebound Avg. 3.0 4.1 Field Goal % .410 .430 Free Throw % .750 .874 GUARD Kobe Bryant Kobe Bryant Scoring Avg. 29.3 22.5 Rebound Avg. 5.3 6.3 Field Goal % .461 .468 Free Throw % .878 .821 GUARD Ron Harper Ron Harper Scoring Avg. 7.1 7.0 Rebound Avg. 3.9 4.2 Field Goal % .514 .399 Free Throw % .556 .680

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How They Shoot

Kobe Bryant has taken the most shots on the Lakers and he and Shaquille O’Neal combine for more than half of the team’s shots:

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Bryant O’Neal Rest Team Shots Per Game 23.2 19.6 41.1 Pct. Shots Taken Per Game 27.6 23.3 49.1 Field Goal Pct. 46.1 54.9 44.2 Points/Game 29.3 25.5 46.7

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: ja.adande@latimes.com.