Lakers Need Break Today

Just before the bus was to leave late Wednesday night, Phil Jackson stood in the tiny visitors’ locker room here, one foot on a chair, his elbow on his knee, his face in his hand.

He stared at Kobe Bryant’s left ankle.

“If it’s broken, then it’s serious,” he said. “A [strain] we can deal with. But we won’t know about that until [today].”

Less than a month remains in the Laker season, 14 games more, and the Lakers haven’t yet played themselves to a state of invincibility. They haven’t yet retaken what they left on the floor of Staples Center last June 19, a championship it seems they’ll be pressed to repeat.

Bryant re-injured his ankle in the final minute of a 107-100 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks before a joyous sellout at Bradley Center. Despite an early 16-point lead, the Lakers lost their second consecutive game after winning their first three on the trip, and have been swept by the Bucks for the first time in a decade.

Buck team physicians diagnosed a strain in the ankle Bryant first injured Feb. 18. When reporters first arrived in the locker room, Bryant was in the corner, black slacks rolled to his knees, both feet in a bucket of ice.

He played until the final 44.5 seconds, then fell in a heap beneath the Buck basket, gripping his ankle. He had driven and pushed a pass to Shaquille O’Neal, who scored 36 points and took 13 rebounds, then was hit hard from his left side by Ervin Johnson. He landed hard.

He will have X-rays today in Los Angeles. The Lakers next play Friday night.

“Hopefully,” Bryant said, “[the X-rays] will say something positive.”

It would be a nice change for Bryant, who has fought through strains to both ankles. He injured the right one two days after the left, on Feb. 20 in Dallas. And, while the immediate issue is why the Lakers no longer seem capable of sustaining an efficient level of play, the bigger picture involves Bryant, and having him sound for the playoffs.

Eager to play through his discomfort, Bryant said he might be more willing to rest his ankles, depending on the results of today’s tests.

The latest injury came at the end of 41 minutes, many of them spent chasing Buck guard Ray Allen. Allen, who scored 35 points in the teams’ last meeting at Staples Center, scored 16 and made six of 15 shots.

“I’m not going to rush it,” he said.

Bryant, too, struggled to find his offense. He was four for 15 from the floor and scored 13 points.

“As the game went on, it was getting weaker and weaker,” he said. “I was just trying to play through it.

“I don’t know what’s going on down there. Some days I get up and I’m able to walk and it feels pretty good. Then I get out there and start playing, and I just can’t move.”

So the games fall away, and the questions multiply. The Lakers played to restart their season, then to summon momentum before the playoffs. Instead, they only prolonged the process of solving their mercurial time at it.

Sam Cassell scored 27 points. Glenn Robinson scored 26. And the Bucks scored 67 points in the second half, 35 in the fourth quarter.

Asked pointedly before the game if he believed the Bucks, at 41-25 and leading the Central Division, were legitimate title contenders, Jackson paused.

“No, I don’t,” he said. “They’re playing very good ball, above their heads, and they are a top echelon team. But you can’t go to the finals in this league without a center, without a dominant force inside. Chicago did it, but that was an aberration. But Milwaukee’s playing great. That’s all I’ll say.”

After Buck Coach George Karl whipped up his team and the city by promising to push the tempo in hopes of scoring at least 110 points, the Lakers led by 13 points in the first quarter and by 16 in the second.

The Bucks missed 13 of their first 17 shots, Bryant hounded Allen, and the Lakers found an easy offensive rhythm.

But the Bucks got hot and the Lakers stopped pushing the ball into O’Neal and they played from behind for most of the second half.

From a 39-23 deficit, the Bucks drew to 44-40 at the half.

When Milwaukee led, 78-70, early in the fourth quarter, it had outscored the Lakers, 55-31, since midway through the second quarter.

Asked if, at this point, it were difficult to maintain his optimism, O’Neal said, “It’s not difficult at all. It’s just us. There’s nobody else. The Spurs beat us. Utah beat us. Portland beat us that one time. All the other games, we messed around, gave it away. Nobody really beat us. It’s just us. We have to find a way to take care of us.”