Someone Better Tell This Team That It’s Time to Get Serious

For a few precious moments late Tuesday, the ear-ringing noise that filled Staples Center appeared to be cheering.

Turns out, it was the sound of collapsing.

The Lakers’ aura of playoff invincibility is gone.

After two weeks of incessant chipping, it was knocked to pieces by a basketball team disguised as a sledge hammer.

It wasn’t Sacramento or Dallas, but Tim Duncan and a bunch of guys we couldn’t spot on the street.

It wasn’t in the NBA Finals, but in a Western Conference semifinal series that was supposed to be just one more easy step.

While the Laker magic made it close, some of that recent Laker lack of focus made it feel like a blowout.

It was San Antonio 88, Lakers 85, the series tied at one game apiece, and, no, we never thought we’d have to write that sentence.

But then, after watching the Lakers win 20 of their last 21 playoff games and 18 consecutive games at home, there was much about Tuesday that didn’t seem familiar.

The Lakers can be beaten this time of year?

Their veteran coach can make a mistake that led to that defeat?

Their veteran players can be fooled on a decoy play that was embarrassing in defeat?

And, with the game on the line, Kobe Bryant goes up for a final-seconds shot ... that becomes a pass ... that he catches himself?

“We almost got away with it again, we almost got away with it,” Bryant said.

But they didn’t, because this is how it ended, the Lakers trailing by two points and the crowd roaring and Bryant driving into four Spurs and losing the ball and touching it again and being called for traveling with 1.3 seconds remaining.

“I lost control of the ball, I tried to kick it back to [Derek] Fisher, an obvious violation,” Bryant said. “I just lost control.”

Isn’t that how tough losses ended in the old days? Bryant doesn’t do that stuff anymore, does he?

With a knee that seemed fine, Bryant was spectacular for most of the game--this loss wasn’t about him.

It was about the Lakers being outscored, 41-14, during one stretch of the first half. That’s focus.

It was about the Spurs getting seven offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter while the Lakers had zero. That’s hustle.

It was about a continuation of the problems that plagued this team during its first championship run two years ago.

“We don’t have a choice now,” Bryant said. “We have to improve.”

As much as anything, though, it was a loss symbolized by three plays during a second quarter in which they were outscored, 32-19.

With 5:30 left in the quarter, when Robert Horry drove the lane, only to have his shot blocked out of bounds by ... nobody. He simply twirled and threw it away as if expecting the ball to get swatted.

Throughout the game, the supporting players seemed lost or out of sync.

“We have to stop, take a calculated look at what we’re doing, and go forward from there,” said Laker Coach Phil Jackson.

A lower point occurred with 3:10 left in the quarter, when players and coaches from the Spurs’ bench stood up, and four of the Spurs walked toward the sidelines, and everyone on both teams assumed they were calling timeout.

But they weren’t calling timeout. They were calling the biggest decoy play since Dan Marino faked that spike against the New York Jets.

With everyone but one person just standing around, that one person--Antonio Daniels--drove the lane and scored on a layup and was fouled by a stunned Samaki Walker, who was also standing around.

“The false timeout made us dispirited, made us look like a bunch of rookies out there,” Jackson said.

Then came the nadir, when Jackson suffered a five-star brain cramp with 47 seconds remaining in the half.

O’Neal was assessed his third foul, and yet was allowed to remain in the game.

Everyone in the house knew that one of the Spurs would flop and cause O’Neal’s fourth foul.

Eleven seconds later, Duncan flopped and O’Neal had a fourth foul that affected his play for the rest of the game.

The officials struggled on that call, and throughout the game, amazingly awarding the Lakers only two free throws in the first half.

But the Lakers can’t blame them. They can only blame a creeping playoff malaise that seems to have crept back into their locker room after a year off.

It is a problem they fixed just in time two years ago, and promise to fix again.

“We have a saying that the playoffs don’t start until you lose the first game at home,” Bryant said. “This is where it gets fun.”

Yeah, a real blast.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.