All of the Lakers’ Problems Come to Forefront on Road

In the last minute of the Lakers’ 101-88 loss to the Sacramento Kings in Game 4 on Tuesday night, Danny Ainge of TNT said this about the Lakers: “That’s awful basketball.”

Doesn’t sound all that encouraging, does it?

Maybe things will be different Friday night at Staples Center for Game 5. Maybe the Lakers can somehow return to the good old days, like, say last week, when everyone was busy mapping out the parade route.

At precisely the wrong time, there were a lot of problems in the two games at Arco Arena, when all of the Lakers’ worst fears dropped out of the rafters, namely: 1) problems guarding power forwards, 2) poor outside shooting, 3) Hack a Shaq works.

And on that subject, sort of, there is one more big issue the Lakers are going to have to figure out. What’s happened to Shaquille O’Neal?

Here we have a player who dropped 46 points on the Kings in Game 1, who had 19 rebounds in Game 2 and who made only 18 of 44 shots in the Lakers’ two losses.

So the most dominant player in the league, the odds-on choice to become the first unanimous MVP choice in NBA history, the league’s leading scorer and the best percentage shooter in the game is getting stopped by Vlade Divac and Scot Pollard?

The answer is, yes, sort of.

“Well, he is missing shots,” said Rick Adelman, the Kings’ coach. “But I also feel like we’re really executing what we’ve been trying to do too.”

That would be to send defensive help to either Divac or Pollard as soon as O’Neal touches the ball.

“We have to give Vlade so much credit--and some massage therapy--because he’s doing such a good job on Shaq,” Chris Webber said.

Pollard said Divac set the defensive tone early by banging O’Neal, a not-so-unusual tactic that Pollard also follows.

“Vlade did a lot of it by himself,” Pollard said. “But we also gave him a lot of help. He worked him and then I did my usual thing, like foul him. You know, try to move him around a little bit. Get in his way, make him work harder.”

With O’Neal collecting two and sometimes three defenders, there should be a Laker or two open, but that isn’t going to help much if the open shots aren’t made.

The conventional wisdom is that O’Neal’s workload is a big one. He played 46 minutes in Game 4 and that’s a lot of time when you’re getting banged every time you set up.

Adelman said he didn’t notice O’Neal appearing tired.

“I’ve got enough to worry about,” Adelman said. “But, look, we know how good those guys are. If we don’t play at a very high level, we get beat. Simple as that.”

Divac said O’Neal simply missed more shots than usual.

“My teammates try to help me,” Divac said, “but I have to say that [O’Neal] had lots of chances. He just missed them.”

O’Neal also missed free throws--he was 10 for 26 from the line in the two games at Arco. But O’Neal missing free throws is not a phenomenon. What is? The Lakers losing twice in a row to a team they virtually knocked out in the first two games.

As for Game 5, the Kings don’t seem to be too worried about what might happen. They have already saved face, which may be good enough right now. Besides, as the Kings and underdogs everywhere recite in these situations, anything can happen in Game 5.

“Hey, there is no pressure in this locker room,” Nick Anderson said. “The pressure is in the other locker room, believe me.

“I know the Big Fellow hasn’t had two real good nights, but we have made him take a lot of tough shots. We also know he’s going to get his points. Hopefully we won’t get that many in Game 5.”