A Pop Heard in Lakerland

First came a “distinct pop” in Karl Malone’s knee, audible to only a couple of the 19,000 people in the building. If there were a sound effect for what came next, it might mimic the noise of a ball bouncing on the roulette wheel and landing on the wrong number.

At one point or another the Lakers have shown a rebuke for every doubt about their championship merit, but they fell prey to one of those variables beyond their control Sunday night.

It’s those “X” factors that pose the most serious threat to their trophy hopes. They have demonstrated that four Hall of Famers can share the ball, that they all can accept reduced roles if the result is victories, that Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant can coexist on the court, that they can play defense when they absolutely have to, that the reserves are capable of providing adequate support.

But from the very beginning this was about greater forces. The day after Gary Payton and Karl Malone were formally introduced as Lakers, Bryant was formally charged with sexual assault and all of a sudden his legal situation became the top story.

About two months into the season, when back-to-back losses or unsatisfactory wins were all that went wrong for the Lakers, they got hit with the most frightening sight of the season.

Malone injured his knee in the first quarter of the Lakers’ 107-101 victory over the Phoenix Suns, and nothing about it was positive.

The Laker medical and public relations staffs were tight-lipped, divulging very little about the knee other than to say it was a strain. That wasn’t a good sign.

Neither was Malone’s acknowledgment afterward that he never has experienced a feeling like this injury during his 18-plus NBA seasons.

With slightly more than eight minutes remaining in the first quarter, Malone went up for a jump shot, landed on Scott Williams’ feet and fell backward on the sideline, right next to the Laker bench. Then Williams landed on Malone’s leg, causing Malone to grimace in pain and grab his right leg.

That sight alone was strange. Bryon Russell, a teammate of Malone’s in Utah, said he had “never never” seen Malone like that before.

Williams said: “When I landed on him, I heard a distinct pop. I didn’t know where it came from. I didn’t know if it was his shoe, his knee, or ankle, or what, but I heard a distinct pop. I felt real bad that it happened.”

Malone, who was fouled on the play, shot his two free throws so he would be eligible to return in case he was cleared to. He bent his knees at the foul line, and said he was able to do that without much problem.

But when he tried to do some running in the hallway after the medical staff checked him out, he said the knee felt “wobbly.”

Another bad sign.

He’ll have an MRI exam this morning, then all of Lakerland will await the results.

If the results are bad and he goes on the injured list, the automatic five-game stay will force him to sit out more games because of injury in the next couple of weeks than he has in his entire career.

That’s what makes this so cruel and unusual. Malone is more devoted to his body than anyone else in the NBA. He spends hours in the weight room, honing his physique.

He has the physical conditioning to prevent injuries and the mental toughness to play through others, which is why he has only sat out four games because of injury in his career.

“I guess machines get hurt sometimes,” Malone said.

He was frustrated by the injury, frustrated that he had to answer questions about the injury.

But he said, “If there’s a silver lining, we’re going through these things right now,” Malone said.

At that point he was talking about the Lakers’ inconsistencies, their inability to put teams away, but he might as well have been describing this time now.

Maybe this will snap the Lakers out of their recent skid.

The Lakers have looked bored through games and stretches of games lately.

They sow better recognition and reaction when they look at each other after another blown assignment then they do when they’re playing defense.

Poor on-the-ball defense, failure to jump out on pick-and-rolls and a lack of help

Every game they play like this just makes it tougher down the road. The word will get out that the Lakers don’t like to play the full 48 minutes, so just keep at them and you’ll have a chance no matter how far you might fall behind. So when the Lakers should be wrapping things up in the third quarter and securing a spot on the bench for the starters in the fourth.

This development came one day after Jackson had expressed some disappointment in the development of the younger players and indicated he would refrain from using them. Now he might not have any other choice.

We could get our first look at rookie Brian Cook, and perhaps more looks at Luke Walton, who came in the fourth quarter Sunday night and scored five points and two assists, enough to earn some praise from O’Neal.

“Luke is a pretty good player,” O’Neal said. “He has great skills, great knack for the game and he knows and he understands the offense.

“I was surprised [he came in.] He hasn’t really played all year. But he came in, he was ready, he gave us a spark and I think he deserves more playing time.

“Hopefully we don’t have to go without [Malone] for a long period of time, but we have a lot of guys that have to step up.”

Nobody thought Luke Walton would be playing a larger role in Laker victories than Karl Malone, but that’s the unknown ... and that’s what lurks there for the Lakers.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com.