Something Is Missing for Lakers

Foul play felled the Lakers on Saturday.

How far did things get afoul for the Lakers late in this marquee meeting of the league’s top two teams?

Kobe Bryant, gone because of fouls.

Shaquille O’Neal, out because the Lakers didn’t want him fouled.

So, while the Portland Trail Blazers swarmed and flailed, the Lakers’ top two players were seated on the sidelines with 14.1 seconds left and the game on the line.

The result was Derek Fisher’s missed three-point attempt with less than 10 seconds left and Portland handing the Lakers a 95-91 defeat before 18,997 at Staples Center.

“We just kind of let it slip away,” O’Neal said quietly.

After their recent 16-game winning streak, the Lakers (33-8) have lost three of their last five, including two of three at home, both to division foes.

Meanwhile, Portland (30-10) moved to within 2 1/2 games of the Lakers in the Pacific Division. It was also the first time the road team has won a regular-season matchup of these two teams since January 1996--a span of 12 games.

“You just go through stretches in the course of a season,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “It’s been a long season, you go through a stretch.

“Obviously, we’ve run into some tougher opponents. They’re playing pretty good ball, and we’re not shooting the ball particularly well.”

Especially in the second half of this game.

After building a 57-47 halftime lead on the strength of Bryant’s shooting and O’Neal’s rebounding, the Lakers shot only 38.9% in the third quarter and a miserable 25% in the fourth, and were outrebounded, 30-12, in the half.

“I think we ran out of gas in that second half, and we’re trying to figure out why,” Jackson said. “For whatever reasons, we just didn’t finish that game very well.”

At the end of it, the Lakers were limited by Bryant’s foul trouble. Bryant, who led the Lakers with 28 points, picked up his fifth with 2:35 left and fouled out with 14.1 seconds left when the Lakers needed to force the Trail Blazers to the free-throw line.

“I wanted to be out there playing so bad,” Bryant said. “I didn’t see Robert [Horry] behind me. If I’d known he was behind me [and could’ve taken the foul], I would’ve run the other way.”

After Brian Grant missed both ensuing free throws, the Lakers had the ball with 14.1 seconds left, trailing, 93-91.

“We had a sequence which we wanted to run a play, we had an opportunity to do something a little different--get a good look, maybe a three-point shot, a play we like to use,” said Jackson, explaining why he removed O’Neal (who was one for four from the free-throw line in the game) at that point.

“[Also] ended up thinking that perhaps Shaq would just be fouled automatically if he got the ball and we wanted to take our chances not to have that happen.”

Instead, the Lakers tried to free up Glen Rice, who was clamped down by Stacey Augmon. So Robert Horry passed it the other way to Fisher, standing 25 feet away, with Scottie Pippen nearby, and time ticking down.

“You look back on it, you wish you could have that one back, and explore some other options,” Fisher said. “But you’re out there in the heat of the moment and you just go with what you feel.”

Said Jackson: “At the end, Pippen got in the midst of that sequence and kind of messed it up a little bit. Obviously, Derek had an open shot. I don’t think anybody contested the shot.”

Three possessions earlier, with the Lakers trailing by three, Rice had his jumper blocked by Steve Smith, which resulted in a breakaway dunk by Smith.

But Jackson said the real reason the Lakers lost this game was their defense in the fourth quarter, when the Laker offense bogged down and Portland turned an 84-77 deficit into an 89-86 lead by scoring on six of seven possessions.

Smith led the Trail Blazers with 27 points and Damon Stoudamire had 22. In fact, Portland’s starting five accounted for 91 of the team’s 95 points.

“They rebounded the ball very well and they played really well,” said O’Neal, who had 17 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists and six blocks in 47 minutes. “We played pretty good defense.

“But the last nine or 10 possessions, we didn’t sustain it.”

Asked if he felt worn down, O’Neal, who only had four points and two rebounds in the second half, merely shook his head.

Asked if he understood being on the sidelines for the key last possession, O’Neal said: “Yeah.”

Grant said that Portland, which double-teamed O’Neal all game, planned to get him as tired as possible.

“You have to remember that Shaq’s playing almost 40 minutes a night,” Grant said. “So we just kept coming at him with different waves of people. And I think it really wore him down.”

Bitter End

Anatomy of the Lakers’ collapse in the fourth quarter:

SCORING

Portland 22

Lakers 13

REBOUNDS

Portland 17

Lakers 5

SHOOTING %

Lakers 25%

A LOSS OF CLOSS

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