Energy Crisis Leaves Lakers in the Dark

Then another game was gone, 20 now, and another loss was hung, their 13th, and the Lakers are left scrounging for what they can no longer be sure is their true game.

The Utah Jazz defeated the Lakers, 93-85, on Wednesday night at Delta Center.

Phil Jackson pointedly blamed the referees.

The Laker players glumly took responsibility. They shot 35.7% from the field. They scored 13 points in the third quarter. They had 16 turnovers. Having pretty much mastered the Memphis Grizzlies but otherwise without joy, they’ve won two games going on two weeks.

They are 7-13, their season nearly a quarter gone, the whole league ahead of them, it seems, and nothing has improved but their postgame calm.

Utah’s Karl Malone had 29 points and 15 rebounds and John Stockton had 11 assists, enough to overwhelm Shaquille O’Neal’s 23 points and 15 rebounds and Kobe Bryant’s 17 points.

“Those two 40-year-olds ran us into the ground,” Bryant said, but it wasn’t quite true.

Malone is 39.

None of which put O’Neal into much of a mood. Playing on the second of back-to-back nights (the Lakers are 0-5 in them) and now at altitude, O’Neal appeared to require great effort to challenge shots and get off his own. He missed 15 of 23 shots.

“I don’t make excuses,” O’Neal said.

Still, he’s O’Neal. And Bryant’s Bryant. And that’s not enough. Apparently not nearly.

The Lakers are in last place in the Pacific Division again. The worst record through 20 games by a team that eventually won an NBA championship is 11-9, by the 1946-47 Philadelphia Warriors.

So, O’Neal is beginning to be unhappy with the players around him. In fact, he appears to be wondering if they are the right players to have around him.

Asked if he believed the players who could play the Lakers into a fourth consecutive NBA title were in his locker room, he turned his head, stared straight at the questioner, and said, “No comment.”

Just that.

“I just want eight guys out there with me who want to play,” he said.

For weeks, it has looked bad. O’Neal returned from surgery on his toe and they have won four of eight games. The schedule won’t wait. They’ll play Dallas on Friday at home. Utah’s back Sunday. It’s months before they’ll get the Grizzlies again.

“The problem is that the whole team is not playing with enough energy or enough fire,” O’Neal said, a frequent complaint lately. “I’d like to touch the ball more too, especially when I’m shooting seven for 10 from the line.”

General Manager Mitch Kupchak said this week that he would not rush into a trade, that the Lakers’ core players deserved more time. But the Lakers continued to take hits at power forward, where Wednesday Slava Medvedenko injured the pinkie on his shooting hand and could be out six weeks. Samaki Walker, who has a strained lower back, could come off the injured list for Friday’s game, but that’s not assured.

The Laker bench generally has been overrun, though Tracy Murray got his first significant minutes (12) in more than a month and made all four of his shots, including three three-pointers, and scored 11 points.

“There’s really no excuse,” O’Neal said. “We’re all professionals and we have to be ready. You know, it seems like sometimes we have five out there and a couple of guys don’t know what’s going on.”

Perhaps that’s what leads to 20 missed shots in the third quarter. Or the fact that every time the Lakers drew close in the fourth quarter, Malone would find a wide-open jumper. Bryant, perhaps still on rickety knees, missed nine of 14 shots. Devean George had two points and four fouls in nine minutes.

Perhaps it was the back-to-back games. Perhaps it was Jackson’s decision to fly the day of the game, coupling a late night with an early-morning flight. Perhaps these are the Lakers.

“From night to night, there’s a decision to be made,” forward Rick Fox said, “if you’re going to come and compete and play to the best of your ability. Or not.”

For six weeks they’ve complained about their lack of effort, their failure to play the game, their inability to hit a shot.

“Every game we say we’re going to stop the bleeding,” Brian Shaw said. “We’ve not been able to stop it.”

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Two Much to Handle

A look at how the Lakers have done this season when they play on consecutive nights:

*--* Date Opponent Result Oct. 29 San Antonio L, 87-82 Oct. 30 at Portland L, 102-90 Nov. 7 at Boston L, 98-95 Nov. 8 at Wash L, 100-99 Nov. 19 at Dallas L, 98-72 Nov. 20 at S.A L, 95-88 Nov. 26 at Miami L, 97-85 Nov. 27 at Orlando L, 112-102 Dec. 3 Memphis W, 101-91 Dec. 4 at Utah L, 93-85

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