Laker Repeat Is Stunning

The Lakers of remarkable winning streaks, the weeks upon weeks of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and whoever wanted to tag along, of simply burying decent NBA teams in talent, look somewhat different this morning.

They lost their second consecutive game on Tuesday night, this to the Seattle SuperSonics, moribund against 27 teams, plucky against one. If Sacramento on Friday suggested vulnerability, Seattle on Tuesday appeared to confirm it.

Gary Payton scored 29 points and Vin Baker scored 27 in their 104-93 victory at Staples Center, the Lakers’ first home loss since Game 1 of the NBA Finals, and their first in the regular season since April 1.

O’Neal had 37 points, 16 rebounds and six blocks, but often looked alone in a fractured Laker offense. Bryant missed 16 of 23 shots, scored 16 points, and had only one assist, continuing a recent trend of wayward shooting and falling assists. He also had some of the defensive responsibility for Payton, who had 10 assists.

Bryant, who has been bothered by a sinus infection, left the arena without commenting. O’Neal did the same. Their covert exits left teammates to explain a less than vigorous defensive effort, and the team’s first back-to-back losses since March. The Lakers are 16-3.

“I don’t know,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said about Bryant’s sudden difficulties. “I just thought he wasn’t free for a lot of shots and a lot of things happened. He got up in the air, he got bumped a little bit, he didn’t get the calls. He just never really got feeling like he had control over the game the way he likes to.”

O’Neal continued to gain his touch around the basket. He made 18 of 27 attempts, and is 59 for 87 from the field in his last four games. The rest of the offense hasn’t been as precise. The shooters missed 31 of 39 threes in the losses to the Kings and SuperSonics. Derek Fisher, who started for the first time since Game 5 of the NBA Finals, was one for seven from the arc. Bryant and Lindsey Hunter each missed all three of their threes.

And while all of that was happening, the SuperSonics were making 46.6% of their attempts, including five of nine threes, and so became the second team to reach 100 points against the Lakers.

The SuperSonics have won five of six against the Lakers, but that’s more an annoyance than anything the Lakers find troubling.

After playing through deficits of eight points in the first quarter, 11 points in the second quarter and nine points in the third quarter, the Lakers moved ahead of the SuperSonics at 77-76 late in the third, only to give up the last nine points of the third and the first four of the fourth. The hole, then, was 89-77, SuperSonics, and the Lakers were never closer than seven points in the fourth quarter.

They have not lost three consecutive games in the Jackson era.

“We’ll get back at it a little bit this weekend, and we have [games] Friday [against the Clippers] and Sunday [against Golden State],” Jackson said. “We’ll see if we can’t get back at it and find a rhythm.”

For eight months the Lakers turned defeats into winning streaks.

An April 1 loss to the New York Knicks preceded 19 victories, 11 of them in the playoffs. A June loss to the Philadelphia 76ers brought 11 consecutive wins, four to finish the NBA Finals and seven to start their three-peat hopes.

When they lost in Phoenix on Nov. 16, the Lakers won their next nine, a streak that died Friday in Sacramento, making them 39-3 since the Knick loss, and 16-2 this season, matching the best start in franchise history.

“For a lot of us, it almost disgusts us to lose,” Fisher had said. “We’ve only lost three or four games in the last nine months. So, we don’t get used to losing. After a loss it gives us a chance to refocus as a group, to forget about the fact we won eight games in a row, or 12 games in a row, or whatever, and just start over. Sometimes you need that, the short-term goals, instead of always looking to the playoffs, or 72 wins.”

So, the Lakers arrived at the SuperSonics, losers of four in a row, of six of seven, and of five consecutive road games. The SuperSonics were without starting center Calvin Booth, who had a sore ankle, and Desmond Mason, who scored 21 points in Seattle’s 15-point loss to the Lakers on Nov. 30.

Didn’t matter. Laker shooters missed. Seattle shooters didn’t.

The Lakers had large defensive issues in the first half, particularly in the first quarter, and particularly with regard to Payton and Baker.

Baker, faced with the prospect of O’Neal on the inside, stood on the outside and took jump shots, and let Antonio Harvey deal with O’Neal. Baker had 20 points at halftime. That, Payton’s 19 and Brent Barry’s 10 helped the SuperSonics to a 61-54 halftime lead.

On Baker’s five for six and Payton’s five for nine, Seattle scored 35 first-quarter points, the most allowed by the Lakers in any quarter. The SuperSonics slowed somewhat in the second quarter, and still the Lakers hadn’t had a worse defensive half.

“Good thing we have a lot of games left,” Hunter said.

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SONICS’ ROOM

Staples Center has been a home away from home for the Seattle SuperSonics, who have won four of five games against the Lakers since the facility opened in 1999:

*--*

Date Winner Score Jan. 17, 2000 Seattle 82-81 April 10, 2000 Lakers* 106-103 Dec. 8, 2000 Seattle 103-95 March 11, 2001 Seattle* 109-97 Dec. 11, 2001 Seattle 104-93

*overtime