Forget About Bad, This Was Terrible

It’s alarming to see the Lakers in such an inept state this close to the playoffs, to hear quotes like this coming from the locker room.

“Tonight we were terrible,” Karl Malone said.

If they’re struggling to get 80 points against the Portland Trail Blazers, what would happen if they played the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals?

Did someone say NBA Finals? The Lakers can’t count on the pole position in the race to June anymore.

It’s gone, just like that, vanishing to a soundtrack of Staples Center boos in a 91-80 loss to Portland on Tuesday night.

Afterward, Coach Phil Jackson questioned how much his team even wanted that No. 1 spot in the Western Conference and the three series’ worth of home cooking that would go with it. The Lakers have faced double-digit deficits against Orlando, New Orleans, San Antonio and now Portland at home in recent weeks. That shouldn’t be happening.

“I don’t know if these players really care as much as we do about winning games,” Jackson said. “I don’t know if strategically they see what that entails and how much more benefit you have from winning and finishing the season strong.”

The Lakers actually started the game with a commitment to the triangle offense. The execution was good, the shots weren’t. The Laker shooters were open. But Portland’s shooters were, as Shaquille O’Neal might say, opener.

The result was a 25-2 Portland run. Twenty-five to two.

“It muddled around for a couple of minutes before we managed to implode,” Jackson said.

That’s an ominous word, implode. Jackson used it before the last preseason game, when he said this Laker team could either win 70 games or implode. Winning 70 is out of the question. Could they be settling for option No. 2?

Jackson teams are supposed to be conditioned to adversity. That’s why he usually keeps the timeouts in his pocket and lets the players sort out their problems by themselves, like pilots in a flight simulator.

It’s a good thing for the Lakers that this wasn’t a real emergency, such as a playoff game. They failed miserably. Their chart went from bad to worse. Their shots went from rimming out to airballs. They bobbled passes, or threw weak alley-oops. They didn’t box out the smallest player on the court on one of the rare occasions when the Trail Blazers did miss.

They abandoned the offense, lost all poise.

They had nowhere to turn, nothing and no one to give their trust.

Going inside to O’Neal brought limited success, but he was almost as likely to commit a turnover (five) as he was to make a field goal (seven in 11 tries). Plus, he made only three of 10 free throws. He missed one so badly it bounced all the way to the Portland bench.

Kobe Bryant had an even worse game than he did Sunday against the Spurs. He had Ruben Patterson (a good defender, if not a true “Kobe-stopper”) guarding him on the perimeter. He had Theo Ratliff (the league’s leading shot-blocker) waiting for him at the rim. Even when the offense functioned properly and he had good shots he missed them. Then he appeared to abandon hope, taking only three shots in the fourth quarter (one a desperation three-pointer to beat the shot clock.)

Here’s how bad it got: their best scoring threat in the third quarter was Rick Fox’s shooting three-pointers. For those who haven’t been watching, Fox is the guy who made only 21% of his three-pointers this season.

The Lakers managed to miss four shots on one possession. That’s almost impossible for an NBA team.

The Lakers shot below 40% and committed 20 turnovers.

(By contrast, did you see that offensive display by the Angels Tuesday afternoon? At this rate they won’t just take over Dodger territory, they’ll be massing at the border of Lakerland).

Even the things the Lakers did right went wrong. The Lakers pulled down 17 offensive rebounds but had only nine second-chance points to show for it. Portland had almost the inverse; 14 second-chance points on nine offensive rebounds.

The Lakers had two points in a 5 1/2-minute stretch in the first quarter, and two points in five minutes in the third.

The Lakers didn’t do much talking on defense (unless you count Bryant’s “Oh [bleep]” when he realized Patterson had the ball unguarded right under the basket.

“We act like we haven’t played the pick-and-roll all year,” Malone said.

Portland is fighting for a spot in the playoffs.

“To me, this was like a must-win game,” said Damon Stoudamire, who had 24 points, making four of seven three-pointers.

The Lakers didn’t see it that way, even though they needed it to keep pace with the Sacramento Kings. Now they’re 1 1/2-game behind their rivals to the north in the battle for Pacific Division and conference supremacy.

Portland outscored the Lakers, 37-21, in the first quarter.

“It was a high-level game for us,” Portland Coach Maurice Cheeks said.

And a low-water mark for the Lakers.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.