Horry Better Amid the Soul-Searching

By mid-afternoon Monday, Samaki Walker had gone off for his MRI exam and Robert Horry, despite feeling enough improvement in his left foot to participate in practice, was making plans for the same errand.

The MRIs -- on Walker’s strained back and Horry’s foot -- would prove negative, so the waiting continues. Horry, who has sat out two games, could play tonight against Memphis. Walker can come off the injured list Wednesday, but probably won’t.

Kobe Bryant skipped the half-court, three-on-three portion of the day, choosing instead to take medical treatment on his bruised calf after watching film and lifting weights.

The 12 players on the floor in El Segundo were soaked in sweat by the time reporters were allowed through the locked, purple door, nearly 2 1/2 hours after the team reported, half a day after their 12th loss in 18 games.

Afterward, Rick Fox paused for a sip of Gatorade and pushed a smile through the gloom. They are rich and they are famous, so one can assume it is never a bad day to be a Laker, but if there are uncomfortable days, frustrating days, this almost certainly would be one.

Coach Phil Jackson’s joke that they can only win 70 games now (falling from 73, then 72, then 71) doesn’t get the laughs it once did. When he gathers the players it is for a short speech first, and only then is Shaquille O’Neal allowed to bark “1, 2, 3,” so everyone else can respond “Lakes,” and go home.

“Am I worried?” Fox repeated. “Uh, I may be worried that we’re not taking the losses serious enough. It’s hard to digest what has happened the last month and a half, because it’s been an array of issues, which all line up to an array of excuses. So, you know, when you think about it, they all boil down to excuses.”

You remember. They were waiting on Bryant to pass. They were waiting on Bryant to score. They were waiting on O’Neal to heal. They were waiting on O’Neal to blend in. They were waiting on O’Neal to dominate. They were waiting on everyone else to heal.

Now, in the moment it took to play a month’s worth of basketball, they were in last place in the Pacific Division, still waiting.

“I don’t think we’re the only team that’s had to deal with what we’ve dealt with,” Fox said. “It’s the determination and mental toughness that will force you to push through those things, to not settle on the fact you’ve won three championships, to not settle on the fact that it’s early in the season, to not settle on the fact you’ve been without one star. Those are all excuses.

“If we were to look around and give an explanation of why our record is 6-12, and why we’re playing as inconsistently as we have been playing, I can give you 10 different reasons. But if I went home and turned on the TV and saw myself talking and was an unbiased observer, I’d say, ‘Sounds like an excuse to me.’ ”

“So, at what point do you put the excuses aside and realize winning four championships in a row is not easy? If it was easy, [it would] have been done numerous times before.... I don’t know why we feel we’re going to show up and [win]. It’s kind of how we look sometimes when I watch it on tape; it’s as though the presence alone of the Lakers on the floor is supposed to diffuse any attacking mentality of an opponent.... We went out and took three championships and right now we think somebody’s going to hand it to us.”

The pat answers have been about the length of the season and the scope of the challenge, about diminishing November, but Christmas is three weeks away, and it’s all getting harder to dismiss.

“That explanation is turning into an excuse and that excuse is going to get us into a deeper hole,” Fox said. “It is a long season, but the way you conduct yourself in practice, the way you get yourself on the floor, that karmic rhythm thing of what you put out you get back, right now we seem to be putting out a lot of explanations ... as opposed to going out and doing something about it.”

*

TONIGHT

vs. Memphis, 7:30

Fox Sports Net

Site -- Staples Center

Radio -- KLAC-AM (570), KWKW-AM (1330)

Records -- Lakers 6-12, Grizzlies 2-15.

Record vs. Grizzlies -- 1-0.

Update: The Grizzlies are 2-2 since their 0-13 start, 2-7 since Hubie Brown took over as coach.... Guard Brevin Knight (sprained right ankle) is questionable. He has missed seven of 10 games.... Center Cezary Trybanski is the first Polish-born player in the NBA.... Kobe Bryant scored 45 points at Memphis Friday in a 112-106 Laker overtime win.... The Lakers are 26-2 against the Grizzlies, 14-0 at home.