Waking Up Is Hard to Do for These Lakers

Kobe Bryant stood at the end of six losses in nine games, of 11 losses in seven weeks, of quarter upon quarter of mediocre basketball, even here, where they celebrated seven months before.

He smiled a little, but not too much, somewhere between “we got this handled” and “what’s going on here,” and said, “We just take this loss, put it in a bag, and go on.”

Outraged at a late call they believed beat them Sunday afternoon, the Lakers are finding it difficult to gather the same sentiment for the effort that puts them in the predicament. The carpet barely dry from the champagne they spilled in June, the Lakers dragged themselves out of bed, lost flatly again, then drove to Washington, where today they’ll be honored at the White House for last season’s title.

Vanquished in the last NBA Finals in what became less than a fair fight, the Philadelphia 76ers this time won, 93-87, before a sellout at First Union Center and a national television audience, and now the Lakers’ regular-season bag is getting cumbersome.

Their style would be alarming to them, perhaps, if it were not so familiar. The Lakers lost unusually often last season too, then finished by winning 23 of 24 games, the last three in this arena, shoving the 76ers into a tumultuous summer.

While the 76ers climbed above .500 for the first time in nearly two months, the Lakers are 29-12, from a start of 16-1.

“That’s a team that’s struggled all year through health issues and changes,” Laker forward Rick Fox said. “The chemistry search is still going on. But a win like this, against us, the team that beat them in the finals last year, I’m sure will lift their spirits.”

It is a knack the Lakers have, lifting the spirits of the downtrodden.

“We’re all about the NBA,” Fox said with a crooked smile. “We’re all about lifting the spirit of the NBA, keeping everybody interested, not just in us, but other teams.”

Sunday, it was about the 76ers. The Lakers shot 42.4% from the field, missed 14 of 17 three-point shots, were outrebounded by 12 and were outscored by 10 points in the final quarter. Shaquille O’Neal scored 26 points and took 11 rebounds and Bryant scored 20 points, but Allen Iverson scored 29--on 29 shots--and Dikembe Mutombo had 18 rebounds. Derrick Coleman scored 18 points, 14 in the second half.

The game turned, finally, with 45 seconds left and Iverson running the baseline. The 76ers held an 85-84 lead, but the Lakers had scored five consecutive points, and no one would have blamed the 76ers if it started to smell like the finals again.

As he approached the Laker bench at something near full speed, Iverson ran into O’Neal, who was guarding Mutombo, and fell--or flung himself--to the floor.

He made two free throws. Then Derek Fisher missed an open layup, Mutombo made a 15-foot jump shot from the right elbow, and an inbounds pass from Fox to Fisher went out of bounds.

And then the bus rolled for the capital.

Phil Jackson, relieved of his All-Star duties because of the defeat, nevertheless appeared angry. “It comes down to Iverson running into Shaq and falling to the floor and the referee giving him two free throws,” he said. “That’s what the game comes down to, a silly play. It doesn’t make any sense, this game, sometimes.”

Replays showed that O’Neal hardly moved, if at all, as Iverson approached. Joe DeRosa made the call.

“He has his feet down,” Jackson said. “You can’t run into the guy.... Shaq has a right to the position as much as Iverson does. He has to be able to go around it. He can’t just run into somebody and fall down. I know he’s little and Shaq is big, but you don’t referee the game on those points.”

O’Neal refused comment. Two weeks ago he threw a punch in Chicago and hasn’t offered any meaningful discussion--on the punch or other matters--since. On Sunday he shouted over his shoulder, “I ain’t got to do ... !” and he glared.

Fisher, replaced in the starting lineup by Lindsey Hunter two games ago, also said little. He missed two critical late shots, the first a 27-foot three-point attempt with 11 seconds left on the shot clock and the Lakers behind, 83-79.

“He wanted to make the big play and it didn’t happen for him,” Jackson said. “He has to be responsible for it. If he gets in that situation again, he has to either come sit down or have more responsibility.”

Fisher was two for 10 from the field, one for seven on three-point attempts. In two games coming off the bench, he has missed nine of 10 three-point shots.

“I don’t like it,” he said. “I don’t like losing.”