Situation Is Fluid Before, After Loss

Kobe Bryant’s Monday began 90 minutes after midnight, somewhere south of nasty, an after-dinner kink becoming an awful awakening.

That was no cheeseburger in paradise.

“He was doubled over like a shrimp,” said Laker trainer Gary Vitti.

Bryant’s day got worse at dawn, after the food poisoning had dehydrated him beyond Gatorade, when the first of three liter bags of fluids was hooked up into his arm.

“Usually a guy takes one or two,” Vitti said.

Bryant spent the pregame warmups like some people spend hospital stays, on his back and attached to a bag.

He spent the next three hours in a much more curious state.

As a human.

He scored, but he stumbled. He was terrific, then tepid, then just plain tired.

When the fourth quarter finally showed up, he didn’t.

And when the Lakers had a chance to essentially finish the Western Conference finals after two games, they couldn’t.

Was their 96-90 loss to the Sacramento Kings at Arco Arena--tying the series at one game apiece--a mere coincidence?

There will ultimately be two ways of looking at it.

They would have won this game if Bryant were Bryant, and will prove that again beginning in Game 3 Friday at Staples Center.

Or, for want of a food taster, a championship was lost.

Only one thing is for certain.

“Next time I order a cheeseburger, I’m going to McDonald’s,” Bryant said.

In the wake of the Lakers’ first road playoff loss in two years, silly conspiracy theories abounded.

In the Hyatt hotel where the Lakers were staying, where Bryant ordered the bacon cheeseburger that allegedly caused the illness, he was the only Laker to get sick.

This, even though other Lakers also ordered room service.

Then once the game started, according to the Lakers, the referees poisoned the scoreboard by unfairly giving the Kings 13 more foul shots that they converted into eight more points.

“There’s only one way to beat us,” said Shaquille O’Neal, who was charged with three offensive fouls and four overall. “It begins with ‘C’ and ends with ‘T.’ The real basketball fans know what is going on here.”

Funny, but hasn’t virtually every vanquished Laker playoff opponent in the last three years felt cheated?

O’Neal was right, there is only one way to beat the Lakers.

But it starts with “K” and ends with “E.”

When Bryant has a stomachache, the Lakers are doubled over like, well, shrimp.

When he plays with a left-arm sweat band covering the bandage that covered the spot where the IV needles were inserted, it’s not a good thing.

“They just played better than us,” Bryant said afterward. “We just have to live with this.”

He sounded like his old self. And certainly, by Friday, he surely will be.

But at times Monday, he was a mere shadow.

“Kobe struggled,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “I think he carried it pretty well but defensively, energy-wise, you could tell he was limited.”

In all areas, really.

He made only nine of 21 shots. He had more turnovers (four) than assists (two).

And in the fourth quarter, with the Lakers trailing by a dozen and 7:14 remaining, the world’s best fourth-quarter player was in a most incredible spot.

On the bench.

“In certain spurts I had a lot of energy, and in some I didn’t,” Bryant said. “I just tried to pace myself for three quarters, and then hopefully we’d get within striking distance, and then the energy I saved up, I’d be able to put it all out when the game is on the line.”

But that never happened.

After sitting for about four minutes, he came back into the game just in time to allow a three-pointer by Mike Bibby without so much as a leap in his face.

And even though he hit a three-pointer to bring the Lakers to within three with 12.5 seconds remaining ... when it came down to a shot that could bring them to within one point in the final moments

Yes, it was the shot Jackson wanted. “We wanted something we could get up quick,” he said.

And on this day, Bryant was anything but.

The record for points in a playoff game while suffering food poisoning--38 by Michael Jordan in 1997--is safe.

The assuredness with which the Lakers were going to win this series is not.

*

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