Lakers’ Latest Defeat Has a Finality to It

The Lakers got Jason Kidd at a down moment, the New Jersey Nets on the rear of a back-to-back, weary in legs and minds.

They, on the other hand, had a day off, a full night’s sleep and a short drive to Staples Center.

Then they lost, 89-83, on Friday night, and pondered the floor as they shuffled to their locker room, boos pounding them from the fans not already out on Chick Hearn Court.

“Well,” Kobe Bryant said, “I guess we like doing things the hard way.”

Shaquille O’Neal missed five of eight free throws in the final five minutes. Bryant, who said his tendinitis-wracked knee was improved, scored a season-low 11 points, and the Nets scored the final seven points for their first win in four games.

O’Neal left without speaking to the media. He scored 27 points but missed eight of 13 free-throw attempts.

“We just played worse than they did,” Brian Shaw said of last season’s NBA Finals combatants, neither looking much like it lately.

The Lakers have lost three of four games, the last two at home, where they have lost eight games, one more than all of last season. They are 19-23, 4 1/2 games out of the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot, with 40 games to play.

With the urgency growing and their room for denial narrowing, with people beginning to wonder if, indeed, the Lakers can go from three-time NBA champions to lottery participants, the spectacular defeats persist. In a span of three days, at the end of a week that Coach Phil Jackson once called critical, the Lakers lost twice and lost quietly.

“I thought [the Nets] were obviously fatigued and we couldn’t take advantage of that, either,” Jackson said. “And they showed their mettle by staying in the game until they had a chance to win it.”

Kenyon Martin scored 18 points and Kerry Kittles 17 for the Nets, who played most of the game as though exhausted, and then won down the stretch, when the Lakers played the rest of the game as though exhausted. They scored six points in the final three minutes. After O’Neal made a free throw with 47.6 seconds remaining for an 83-82 lead, the Nets scored on each of their next three possessions, on a Kittles three, two Martin free throws and a Martin dunk.

The Nets arrived in some trouble. Though they’d built a nice lead on Boston and the rest of the Atlantic Division, they’d lost three in a row on a road trip through the Western Conference, and four of five overall.

Also, they’d lost the night before to Golden State, meaning both NBA finalists had lost on consecutive nights to the same team for the first time in nearly 30 years. The Warriors won at Staples Center on Wednesday.

“We wanted to prove to ourselves and to everyone else that we can beat any team in this league,” Net Coach Byron Scott said.

They’ve beaten the Lakers twice in less than a month, and held them to an average of 77 points.

O’Neal missed two free throws with 34.8 seconds remaining, one with 47.6 seconds to play and another with 1:51 left. Derek Fisher scored 22 points, two nights after he scored 24 in the loss to the Warriors.

Bryant wore a sleeve on his right leg, which he often does, to fight a condition he says comes and goes.

It’s come recently, forcing him to the perimeter, changing the nature of the Lakers’ game.

He doesn’t get to the rim as often and can’t be as dogged on defense, so the Lakers aren’t as athletic, which is not the kind of thing they can skimp on.

Bryant sat out the first seven minutes of the second quarter and took one shot in the period, a three-pointer. He took seven shots in the first half, all but one from at least 13 feet, and took seven more in the second half, only two in the fourth quarter.

“I was surprised,” Jackson said of Bryant’s limitations. “I had a couple things set for him and they didn’t pan [out].... He actually turned some of the things down. Had to, obviously.”

“He said I declined on things?” Bryant asked, and then added with some sarcasm, “Yeah, that’s what it was.”

Actually, he said, “That’s just getting my rhythm back right now. My knee felt pretty good ... the best it’s felt in a long time.”

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Long Road Back

*--* The team with the worst record to make Western Conference playoffs last season finished 44-38. How the Lakers need to finish the season to reach that record: WINS LOSSES TO REACH 44 38 CURRENT 19 23 MUST GO 25 15 GAMES OUT OF PLAYOFF SPOT...4 1/2

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