Lakers’ House Not in Order

A little more than two minutes were left Tuesday night, and Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and Gary Payton left the floor, passing the incoming Luke Walton at about midcourt.

The boos came disguised, then, as “L-u-u-ke.” Or, something like that.

Into the final week came the Lakers, now building on consecutive home losses, on confusion, on a game gone ratty from what looks to be neglect.

The Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Lakers, 91-80, at Staples Center, and the Lakers’ 11-game winning streak became a two-game losing streak, their momentum gone slack.

“Those were two teams that needed to win,” said Karl Malone, who followed The Other Three from the floor soon after. “They came and won.”

They came and took it to them, the way, come April, many expected the Lakers to. Instead, the Lakers were behind by 18 points in the first quarter, 18 in the second and 17 in the third. They shot 39.7% from the floor (Bryant making five of 23 shots), while the Trail Blazers shot 50%. They had 20 turnovers, and had nine shots blocked, and wore grim expressions almost from the start, as Damon Stoudamire got started on his 24 points and Zach Randolph on his 22.

So, the Trail Blazers worked harder -- or smarter -- to reach the bottom of the Western Conference playoff bracket than the Lakers did to reach the top of it.

Portland has 37 losses. So do the Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets. One of them will be the eighth-seeded team. The other two, it appears, will miss the playoffs entirely.

As the regular season drifted into its final week, the Sacramento Kings beat the New Orleans Hornets and the Lakers barely showed up on their own home court. When they awoke Sunday morning, their playoff spot was theirs to name. By late Tuesday evening, after back-to-back home losses for the first time in nearly 14 months, the Lakers had fallen behind the Kings and the Minnesota Timberwolves and into a tie in the loss column with the San Antonio Spurs.

“I’m not concerned about the game,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “I am disappointed it takes the energy out of the week.”

He added, “I don’t think the players care as much as we do about home-court [advantage].”

So it would seem. The Lakers play the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday and the Kings on Sunday.

O’Neal led the Lakers with 17 points and 12 rebounds, and then left through the kitchen. Bryant, 14 for 49 in the two losses, scored 12 points. But he turned playmaker in the third quarter, when he had six assists, three to Rick Fox for three-pointers.

“I was surprised he wasn’t taking shots,” Jackson said. “He had wide-open shots, available shots. He turned them down for penetration. It’ll come back to him.”

The Lakers were never closer than six points after the first quarter, which probably prompted the boos.

“We just have to put this behind us and try to improve the next time we step out on the floor,” Bryant said. “We know what we’re capable of doing.”

The Lakers were back on national television, though this time it was cable, so they hoped there would be greater attention paid to the finer details of the offense.

They lost to the Spurs on Sunday because they failed to honor the pick-and-roll and, given that, failed to swamp the Spurs with their many offensive options.

O’Neal and Malone were barely involved, which did not play well in the Laker locker room, and O’Neal has had his sullen moments since.

O’Neal said before the game that his sleeved right knee was fine, though Jackson had his doubts. Teammates polled in the locker room on the subject of O’Neal’s recent downturn laid the blame equally on the knee, which contains tendinitis, and the offense, which sometimes goes on without him.

He did not wait around afterward, so again left the analysis to his teammates.

“We just played terribly,” Malone said. “I cannot explain it.... You ride high, winning 11 games and then you lose a couple and it seems like everything is caving in. But you have to believe it.

“Every boo we heard tonight, we should have, and then some more, because that was a terrible effort on everybody’s part. Those guys came ready to play.”