It’s Not a Clean Break for Lakers

The Lakers concluded a figurative half-season of imperfect days and imperfect basketball with more of the same Wednesday night, a loss to the Yao Ming-led Houston Rockets again not among their most pressing issues.

The Lakers operate on a different plane than most, where observations of Shaquille O’Neal’s mood and Kobe Bryant’s game and Gary Payton’s playing time and, now, Phil Jackson’s contract swamp the very games they play.

Bryant came back from seven games off, the Lakers were closer to whole than they’d been in weeks, and still they were 102-87 losers at the Rockets’ new downtown Toyota Center. Yao had 29 points and 11 rebounds, 24 and 10 before O’Neal fouled out with 3:20 remaining. O’Neal scored 24 points and took nine rebounds.

Because of a sprained shoulder and then a slashed finger, Bryant had played twice in going on a month, and largely looked like it. He took seven shots and scored 14 points in 36 minutes, and his legs would not carry him as they usually would against Cuttino Mobley, who had 21 points and 10 assists.

Afterward, Bryant spoke dully of staying within the game’s flow, and O’Neal snapped at the implication that Yao could handle him straight up, and Payton politely declined to answer questions at all.

“I’ll see y’all after the break,” he said.

Karl Malone is still at least a month from returning from his knee injury, the Lakers haven’t put together one week of solid basketball since November, and the organization announced Wednesday it had called off contract negotiations with Jackson, who kept them all sane -- or in line, or apparently in line -- for long periods.

Horace Grant, the veteran of many Jackson seasons and four championships under him, pushed up and out of his chair and said, “I don’t want to think about nothing right now but sleep.”

At the end of seven cities over 12 days, the organization’s longest trip in a dozen years, it was a common sentiment. On Jan. 31, they flew from Los Angeles. By Wednesday night, when they flew back, they’d had three games in the Central Division, three in the Atlantic Division and one in the Midwest Division.

They’d won four games and lost three, the losses by an average of 17 points. They’d gotten Bryant back, but not quite his game, and they’d added the volatility of Jackson’s lame-duck season.

Some nights they played defense and made jump shots, and they won in Toronto, Cleveland, Orlando and Miami. On others, well ... they were outshot by at least 12% in every loss. The Rockets have played the Lakers twice, have won twice, and have two of their eight highest-scoring games of the season against them.

Re-created in the image of Coach Jeff Van Gundy’s beloved Eastern Conference, the Rockets have scored as many as 99 points five times in the last month and a half, and two of them have been against the Lakers.

“Some of that was fatigue,” Jackson said, “just road fatigue.”

Wednesday night, the Rockets forced the game through Yao and their guards. Steve Francis, with Bryant a starter in the Western Conference backcourt on Sunday, scored 21 points on nine-of-11 shooting. Mobley posted Bryant with some success, particularly in the third quarter, when the Rockets turned a close game into their parade and sing-alongs about Yao.

“I think Kobe probably didn’t want to use his hands as much defensively,” Jackson said. “They went right at him in the second half.”

Asked, then, if he believed Bryant had been physically ready to play, Jackson said, “He shot the ball relatively well [making four of five three-point attempts], but maybe his legs weren’t as good. Defensively, he didn’t have the leg strength to deal with Mobley in the post.”

So, the Rockets went from three points ahead to 11 points ahead on three third-quarter possessions and the Lakers were no closer than eight points in the fourth quarter.

“I didn’t feel a thing,” Bryant said, assessing his finger and shoulder. “It’s kind of funny, man, but I felt great.”

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The Big Hurts

Key absences for the Lakers so far this season:

*--* Date Player Reason Out Feb. 2 Kareem Rush Sprained right ankle Two games Jan. 30 Kobe Bryant Cut right index finger Seven games Jan. 22 Brian Cook Broken right pinkie 10 games* Jan. 19 Horace Grant Personal Three games Jan. 12 Kobe Bryant Sprained right shoulder Six games Jan. 2 Shaquille O’Neal Strained right calf 12 games Dec. 21 Karl Malone Sprained ligament in right 25 games* knee Nov. 21 Shaquille O’Neal Strained right calf Two games Oct. 28 Slava Medvedenko Bruised left heel 13 games Oct. 28 Kobe Bryant Sore right knee One game

*--*

Note - O’Neal sat out a game on Feb. 2 and Malone on Dec. 7 because of suspension;

* Cook and Malone are still on injured list