Losses Becoming Risky Business

Phil Jackson said the Lakers ought to be troubled by another road loss, this to the San Antonio Spurs, not four weeks from the playoffs.

Shaquille O’Neal said Jackson ought to get off the bench a little more often, like other coaches do, to protect his players.

Just another day for the Lakers, the playoffs out there but not too close, apparently, to create anything approaching anxiety, even in the wake of Sunday’s 98-89 loss at SBC Center.

The Lakers lost Thursday night in Sacramento, an ever-more-likely first-round opponent, and three days later lost for the fourth time to the Spurs, the first regular-season sweep of the Lakers by the Spurs in nine years. The Lakers scored 36 first-half points, had a season-low 12 assists and, when they closed one last time to within five points late in the fourth quarter, were outscored, 12-6, over the next two minutes. So they are 39-30, in seventh place in the Western Conference standings, a game behind the Utah Jazz and three ahead of the Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns.

“I honestly don’t think it bothers this team at all,” Jackson said. “They feel totally confident they can beat the Spurs whenever they put their mind to it. I think it’s unrealistic. As a coach I’m not happy about it, but they’re very confident about what they do.”

That which carries the Lakers in the postseason -- their arrogance, disdain and game, along with Shaq -- always has made them vulnerable in the regular season. This season, it won’t simply cost them the Pacific Division title, or a late-round home-court advantage. They’ll strain to get into the playoffs, then hope their veteran legs will have enough to get to May, then June.

Jackson is beginning to believe it is risky, and believes his players should understand that. O’Neal didn’t seem to see it that way.

“I’m bothered,” he said. “I’m bothered he doesn’t do the same thing other coaches do when his players get fouled, whine and cry. I’m bothered too.”

Then he stood up and left. O’Neal scored 32 points and took 12 rebounds, another strong game in a string of them, but had some foul trouble that took the edge off his second-half game. He also often believed he was hacked without a call, and once or twice looked to Jackson for confirmation.

It is not necessarily Jackson’s style to rant, particularly not at the end of a weekend that started with him calling out the Kings for the same sort of character deficiency.

If nothing else, Jackson might have been pleased that someone was angry about something. Tim Duncan scored 27 points, leading six Spurs in double figures. Tony Parker had 18, 16 in the second half, when he shot 10 free throws. Emanuel Ginobili scored 10 points in the fourth quarter as the Lakers, riding Kobe Bryant, attempted to make up the last of a deficit that was 19 points in the third quarter and 16 early in the fourth.

The NBA and ABC scheduled a noon game and that’s exactly what they got, something that often looked like a too-early pickup game at the Y.

“It was muddy out there the first half,” Jackson said. “Guys were slogging through that game.”

He said if he had to do it again, he’d consider leaving Los Angeles after Friday night’s game, giving them a day to adjust to the Central time zone. As it was, the Lakers arrived Saturday night, took their wake-up calls at 8:30 a.m., had breakfast together in a hotel meeting room at 9 and were on the bus by 10, 8 a.m. El Segundo time. Bryant scored 31 points but was 11 for 30 from the floor, just as he was against Sacramento.

Bryant said he is attempting to familiarize himself with basketball with a dominant O’Neal again, and that he fully expects his jump shot to return sometime soon.

“It’s a huge adjustment personally,” said Bryant, who scored 15 points in the fourth quarter. “It’s a big adjustment as a team. It’s a tougher challenge than I anticipated.”

With O’Neal demanding the ball and Bryant working out his way around that, the rest of the Lakers struggled as well, and then shrugged, because it’s, what, March?

“If you’re looking for shaken-up confidence, you’ve come to the wrong place,” Bryant said. “It’s about getting our rhythm back. It’s about establishing our inside presence, and everything will fall around that.... There are a lot of games left, over a month, to get it back and get rolling.”