Lakers Look Anything but Fit for Kings

Seemingly intent on attacking a fourth consecutive championship by balancing inconceivable defeat with indefensible victory, the Lakers moved on to another airport after another grasp for the truth here, having won a game but not an explanation for what they do.

Robert Horry brought the bad news Sunday night, after the Lakers required overtime to defeat the Toronto Raptors, 109-107, at Air Canada Centre, Kobe Bryant and Horry scoring the final three points of a trashy game.

As he gathered himself for the flight away from a trip that began with three losses and ended with the sole victory, Horry sat in his yellow corduroy suit and his blue mood, like everyone annoyed at how the Lakers continue to disappoint themselves, and shook his head.

“Awful,” he spat. “Shouldn’t have been an overtime. Terrible, man. Just flat-out terrible.

“You sit there and wonder why. How.”

They have arrived at their Christmas Day game against the Sacramento Kings with 11 wins, eight of them with Shaquille O’Neal in the lineup, and 18 defeats, nine of those with O’Neal in the lineup. They have arrived with questions about their execution on offense and their desire on defense and their willingness to follow their coach’s instructions and their spotty play behind O’Neal and Bryant.

So, a touch on the vulnerable side.

The latest near-cataclysmic failure came along after they led by 11 points in the first quarter, 12 in the second, 11 in the third and by five with 1:11 left in regulation.

From there, Jerome Williams made a jump shot, Bryant missed one of two free throws, Alvin Williams made a jump shot and Morris Peterson, as the clock passed 10 seconds, made a long jumper that was not a three by the toe of his shoe. They went to overtime tied, 102-102.

“It’s that same old stuff that we do all the time when we get up on teams,” Horry said. “It stems from last year when we think we can go outside the stuff we do on offense and we lose a lead and get careless on defense. They come down and one person gets a shot and [another] person gets a shot and they get hot. That’s what’s been happening to us all year. We get complacent. We need to just buckle down on defense and start playing better and stop feeling so sorry.”

The reasons for their mediocrity continue to be moving targets, but team defense and accurate shooting are most often offered. Against the Raptors, who played with starters Vince Carter and Antonio Davis wearing suits on their bench, the Lakers shot a season-high 53.2%. Bryant and O’Neal each scored 31 points, Rick Fox (17) and Derek Fisher (12) reached double figures.

And still the Raptors, losers now of seven of eight games, stayed close. Something about their offensive rebounds (17) and the Lakers’ turnovers (14, 10 after halftime) and O’Neal’s free throws (one for 10 at halftime, seven for 18 for the game).

Peterson scored 27 points and Lindsey Hunter, the former Laker, scored 17. The Raptors lost by 20 to the Miami Heat in the same building Friday night, looked beaten in the first half, and somehow found themselves at the doorstep of dealing the Lakers their first 0-4 trip in 14 years.

They did not, however, score after Jerome Williams’ three-point play with 1:52 remaining in the overtime, following that with two turnovers, a missed leaner by Alvin Williams, two missed free throws by Hunter (the second intentionally) and then another turnover, when Hunter stumbled over Brian Shaw’s feet.

Hunter pleaded for a foul to be called but was ignored, and the Lakers killed the final second.

“We don’t begrudge any win right now,” Fox said. “Some haven’t been pretty, and there [are] only 11 of them, but we’ve had our share of other things.”

Phil Jackson had asked for two wins on the trip and got one, after big losses in Minnesota and New Jersey and narrow defeat, in overtime, in Philadelphia.

He looked into cameras afterward, said, “We certainly threatened to fade again,” and again lacked explanation for the Lakers’ wandering focus.

“It stems from last year,” Horry said. “You can be complacent because in your mind you think you’re good. And you go out there and you’re doing things that just doesn’t do it on the court. Plain and simple.”

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Long Road Back

*--* The team with the worst record to make the Western Conference playoffs last season finished 44-38. How Lakers need to finish season to reach that record WINS LOSSES TO REACH 44 38 CURRENT 11 18 MUST GO 33 20 GAMES OUT OF PLAYOFF SPOT 4 1/2

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*--* Forward Thinking The Lakers play six of their next eight at Staples Center, where nine of their 11 wins have come this season: DATE OPPONENT TIME TV Wed Sacramento 5:30 Ch. 7 Sat at Denver 6 Ch. 9 Sun Toronto 6:30 FSN Jan. 4 at Phoenix 6 Ch. 9 Jan. 5 Phoenix 6:30 FSN Jan. 7 Seattle 7:30 FSN Jan. 10 Cleveland 7:30 FSN Jan. 12 Miami 6:30 FSN

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