Bryant’s Shaky Status Adds to a Volatile Mix

Hmmmm, why do the Lakers suddenly look so different?

Phil Jackson hasn’t insulted anybody in, what, a week? Maybe he ought to call Mike Dunleavy a redneck jackal whose 140 coaching victories should come with an asterisk.

Jerry West hasn’t publicly pondered retirement. Magic Johnson hasn’t talked about suiting up. This isn’t normal.

But of all the uncharacteristic behavior in Lakerland, nothing is having as much of an impact on the series against the Portland Trail Blazers as the team’s sudden abandonment of the principles that got it to the Western Conference finals in the first place: defense and Shaquille O’Neal.

It’s amazing how the deeper a team goes into the playoffs, the more the fundamentals come to the forefront. The solution for the Lakers as they prepare for Game 6 in the Rose Garden at Portland tonight is simple. Back to the basics.

If Kobe Bryant’s foot injury does become a major factor, the Lakers will feel it on defense more than offense. They need Bryant’s versatility and his size, especially if Portland stays with its big lineup, which was so effective in Game 5.

If the Lakers can manufacture a few more points, O’Neal can make up for the rest.

You remember O’Neal, don’t you? Big guy, likes to hang out around the basket. NBA Commissioner David Stern handed him a trophy a couple of weeks ago. Something about being the most valuable player in the league.

Even though Portland’s entire defense is geared toward stopping him, he had some of his most effective stretches of the series during Game 5 on Tuesday night. He was establishing deep position, catching the ball and going up before a second defender could arrive. Or he spun away from the double-team to make a baseline jumper.

For some reason, the Lakers didn’t go to him when it mattered most. O’Neal had only four good scoring chances in the fourth quarter, resulting in two shots (one was a three-point play) and two other trips to the free-throw line as the Lakers lost, 96-88.

“We got impatient,” Derek Fisher said. “That happens when you’re behind.

“We didn’t do a good job of exploring our offense and figuring out a way to get Shaquille the ball.”

O’Neal’s train stopped at 31 points on a night when it looked as if the Diesel was ready to make a run for 40.

It wasn’t simply a matter of the Trail Blazers removing him from the equation. Of the Lakers’ 79 shots, 27 came from behind the three-point arc. The Lakers looked like Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine in that shoe commercial, obsessed with their pursuit of the long ball.

“It just amazes us looking at film how you can really see the difference in when we run our offense and we explore our different options how successful we are,” Fisher said. “Then all of a sudden there are stretches where . . . we have no clue.”

During one sequence midway through the fourth quarter, with the Lakers trailing by 10 points, Robert Horry fired a three-point shot. It missed. The Lakers got the rebound and Glen Rice took another three-pointer. That missed too. Another rebound. Another three-pointer by Rice. Another miss. And the only time O’Neal got his hands on the ball was when he chased down one of the rebounds.

“There are ways for us to still be effective, but in a game your instincts start to take over,” Fisher said.

“All of a sudden, nine, 10, 11 possessions in a row and we still haven’t gotten a touch for Shaquille. He was almost unstoppable Tuesday night. It’s just a shame we couldn’t ride him to the finish.”

The Lakers can’t become stagnant. They can’t all stand around and watch O’Neal do his thing.

They also need to show more movement on defense. That’s what bothered Jackson the most. There were times when players failed to rotate, as if they had forgotten that Rasheed Wallace can hurt them from outside as well.

The Lakers ranked among the league’s top six teams in terms of limiting opponents’ scoring and shooting.

Jackson said his players became too consumed with the officiating, that they worried about the way fouls were being called on them instead of playing aggressive defense.

“We shot poorly in the first half, without a doubt; our offense failed us a lot,” he said. “But when we had an opportunity to get back in the ballgame, we did some strange things defensively, left some outrageous shooters wide open for shots and gave up even second [shots] in that kind of dire situation that hurt us.”

Wasn’t it supposed to be the Trail Blazers who were in a dire situation? At “death’s door” was the term Jackson used.

Neither team needs an ambulance right now. The Trail Blazers are going home, the Lakers aren’t the team that is one game away from elimination.

What the Lakers need is something simple. A little mid-size sedan, the type of basic transportation--like defense and low-post scoring--that got them where they needed to go.

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