Carter Out but Lakers Feel Pain

The Lakers went to Kobe Bryant hopefully, and Bryant took the ball desperately, and now the Lakers have lost two in a row, and three of four, and who would blame them if they are looking over their shoulders at Shaquille O’Neal?

The Toronto Raptors played the fourth quarter without Vince Carter and with Bryant having decided it was his time, and still the Raptors were better, 89-86, Friday night at Staples Center.

These are issues of December, the shooting slumps and the airy defensive moments that are for the moment no larger than that, and not three-peat predicaments. But, as long as O’Neal rests at the end of their bench and the losses keep coming, the turnaround appears a ways off. The Lakers shook their heads on their way off the floor, and the Raptors celebrated behind them, and the usually muffled arena crowd was dead silent, dead confused.

“We’re not panicking,” said Bryant, who scored 26 points, “but we hate to lose. Especially in this type of fashion, it just eats away at you. We’re very, very upset at this loss. It’s just upsetting.”

Inside the final minute of a game they never led, the Lakers were within two points and then within one, but found neither the touch nor the defense for late victory. Alvin Williams scored Toronto’s final six points, four from the free-throw line.

“That was a tough one,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “I thought that we were going to have enough momentum to get back into that ballgame, but [we had] our comedy of errors there in the end, and they just put up a very good effort.”

The Lakers made barely a third of their field-goal attempts and barely half of their free throws, and yet they had the ball out of bounds with 4.9 seconds left and behind by three points. Devean George, who scored a career-high 17 points, in-bounded to Robert Horry, who whipped a pass to Brian Shaw, who had not played for the first 47 minutes, 55.1 seconds.

Twenty-five feet from the basket, Williams fouled Shaw. Referees ruled that Shaw was not in the act of shooting, allowing two free throws instead of three.

“I thought I was [shooting],” Shaw said.

The strategy was to make the first free throw, miss the second and hope for a rebound-putback and overtime. Shaw’s first free throw was about a foot short, and that was that.

It is the way of things without O’Neal.

Bryant scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, but missed six of eight attempts and was called for a late technical foul that cost the Lakers a critical point. At the same time, if not Bryant, then whom?

“There’s no replacement for Shaq,” said Samaki Walker, who had nine points and 14 rebounds. “We have to become more involved. We can’t sit around and watch Kobe. That’s what other teams want us to do.”

The Lakers, who are 4-5 since their 16-1 start, appeared to catch a break when Carter injured his left shoulder.

Near the end of the third quarter, Carter drove from the right wing, past Bryant and toward the basket. As he entered the lane, he stumbled and barged awkwardly into Walker. He grabbed his shoulder before he hit the floor.

Several minutes later, when doctors were able to pull him to his feet, Carter clutched his left arm to his side. He was diagnosed with a shoulder strain, and X-rays were negative.

Carter finished with 15 points, 11 below his average, having missed 11 of 17 attempts. Williams had a team-high 17 points, Antonio Davis scored 16 points and Keon Clark had 16 rebounds.

The Raptors began the second half on the back of Carter, who in the first three minutes hovered, reached and dunked over Walker, made an alley-oop dunk, and then drove straight through the lane and dunked over everything Laker.

The run was 12-3, Raptors, and the lead was 56-40, before Derek Fisher looped in a three-pointer.

The Lakers finished the quarter on a 12-5 run of their own. Bryant scored the Lakers’ final three points on a 16-footer and a free throw, awarded when Carter shoved him. Rick Fox, whose jumper has deserted him, scored eight points in the quarter, six on layups and two from the free-throw line.

So, the Lakers shuffled through another day without O’Neal. The Raptors were without Hakeem Olajuwon, who has an infected toe and did not make the trip west.

But, Olajuwon is no O’Neal, not anymore.

The Lakers were overrun in the middle two nights before in Golden State, and the Warriors played without center Erick Dampier.

It can be a trying process, their game without O’Neal, on both ends of the floor. With O’Neal sitting only a few feet away, on the wrong side of the thin purple line, the Lakers lack their power on offense and their last line on defense, and that takes some getting used to.