Lakers Still Can’t Make a Statement

The great Laker experiment, such as it is, can’t seem to beat the elite, the latest bit of reality coming on a sluggish night in the Northwest.

Ray Allen and Kobe Bryant didn’t do anything of note to each other, which moved the plot to a Laker season that continued to fall in line several slots below the top Western Conference teams, the latest step a backward one for the Lakers in a 108-93 loss to the Seattle SuperSonics in front of 17,072 at Key Arena.

The simmering Allen-Bryant conflict, two months in the making, was overshadowed by SuperSonic forward Rashard Lewis, who had 37 points and did his part to push the Lakers to 0-5 against the best of the West.

A year ago, the Lakers were 18-3 and atop the conference. They now sit at 12-9, barely a part of the playoffs if they were to begin today.

The Laker defense, awkward and awry numerous times this season, was again a culprit.

The Lakers gave up a franchise-record 16 three-point baskets last week against Phoenix and gave up 12 against Seattle, which improved to 18-4.

The Laker offense also had its troubles, missing 24 of 27 shots from the midway point of the first quarter to the final few minutes of the second quarter, allowing the score to balloon from a 20-20 tie to a 53-34 Seattle lead.

Bryant outscored Allen, 35-26, but the SuperSonics took the night.

“Well, they got the win,” Bryant said. “They are so explosive. We’ll see if we can’t do a better job the next time we come up here.”

As for the Allen-Bryant conflict, the buildup exceeded any on-court theatrics between the two.

Allen started the saga two months ago when he said Bryant would behave selfishly and demand a trade within two years if the Lakers failed to succeed. Bryant countered by saying their differences would be settled on the court and, when Allen sat out an exhibition game between the teams, Bryant found him on the Seattle sideline and said harshly, “I’ll see you again.”

They saw each other Tuesday before tipoff ... and touched fists.

There were no words exchanged during the game, no glaring, no pushing, no shoving.

The Seattle crowd, perhaps picking up on the nonexistence of animosity, booed Bryant lustily the first few times the ball touched his hands but only periodically the rest of the way.

SuperSonic fans had a better show in front of them, namely the one put on by Lewis, who scored 17 of the Sonics’ 32 first-quarter points.

“Too much focus was on Ray Allen tonight, and I got a lot of wide-open shots,” Lewis said. “Coming into this game, they thought Ray was going to try to shoot every ball he got, but we just played our style of game.”

Said Allen: “It wasn’t everybody just sitting around and watching me. They could have easily sat back and watched.”

The SuperSonics have every reason to falter, lacking a top-tier point guard, a true inside game and a contract beyond this season for Allen, their four-time All-Star. But so far they haven’t.

“I told [Seattle Coach] Nate [McMillan] before the game I know how to stop them -- get six guys on the court,” Laker Coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. “They’ve got some great weapons. They don’t have their record by mistake.”

Laker forward Lamar Odom, who played perhaps his best game of the season Saturday against the Clippers, had eight points on three-of-10 shooting against the SuperSonics.

“For myself it was a horrible game,” he said. “I didn’t play well. Disappointed in myself. They didn’t do nothing defensively to make it hard for me, I just never got into it.”