Lakers See It Slip Away

A road game slipped away amid another last-minute failure, making Kwame Brown’s return to the nation’s capital the tiniest of Laker concerns.

Some familiar problem spots from a season ago crept onto the court Monday, frustration taking the night as the Lakers settled for outside shots instead of attacking, finished with a confusing final possession and then took part in some agitated eye-rolling at one another.

Lamar Odom missed another late three-point attempt and, a bit later, Kobe Bryant simply lost the ball along the right sideline as the Lakers fell to the Washington Wizards, 94-91, Monday at the MCI Center.

The mishaps were many, the responses prickly.

“There was some irritation,” Coach Phil Jackson said.

Bryant had 31 points on 10-for-27 shooting and was the centerpiece of a final possession that began with the Lakers down by three points and ended with the ball improbably in the hands of Wizard center Calvin Booth.

After a pick and roll, Bryant was trapped by Booth and Jared Jeffries along the sideline and fumbled the ball with five seconds left as he tried to feather a pass to Brian Cook near the arc. It went to Booth instead.

“I don’t know,” Bryant said. “Strip, lose it, wrist, foul, I don’t know, don’t care. Our spacing was just terrible. It’s an unfortunate situation.”

The play came after a Laker timeout and appeared to be doomed from the start, with Odom lining up on the wrong side.

“It was diagrammed and it got flip-flopped,” Jackson said.

Odom missed a three-pointer in the last minute that would have brought the Lakers to within a point, failing to capitalize with 41 seconds left after Bryant drew a double team near the left sideline. Odom, who had nine points and seven assists, missed an open three-pointer with 42 seconds left Sunday against Miami.

“Late game, we’ve just got to put the ball in the hole,” Bryant said. “They double-team me and triple-team, that’s when the ball moves, you’ve got to step up and knock those shots down.”

Said Odom: “He was double-teamed, he kicked it and I missed.”

After building a 52-43 halftime lead, the Lakers did a lot of missing.

The Wizards went on a 21-3 run to end the third quarter, turning a 63-51 deficit into a six-point lead. Jackson pointed to a favorable edge in the quarter for the Wizards, who made 14 of 16 free throws as the Lakers made one of four.

“We was robbed,” Jackson said, borrowing an arcane grammatically incorrect sports phrase. “From the second half, it was kind of uphill sledding. It was pretty interesting. Two palming violations on Kobe when he’s probably the least offender even though there’s a lot of guys that do it in this league.”

Amid the shuffle of a second consecutive road loss emerged another pattern -- back-to-back lack of attack.

The Lakers fell to 1-5 in the second game of back-to-back situations, a problem spot last season when they went 5-14 in such games.

Meanwhile, Brown returned to the city that booed him mercilessly last season, his fourth and final, as a member of the Wizards.

The top pick in the 2001 draft, Brown was booed when he entered with 2:49 left in the first quarter. The crowd got on him whenever he took a rebound or touched the ball, although Brown didn’t seem to mind.

“That was weak,” Brown said. “It was worse than that when I was here.” Then he added, “They should be cheering that I’m gone. I’m confused.”

The crowd did cheer when Brown picked up his first foul by bumping Etan Thomas with 1:25 left in the first quarter.

Brown finished with five points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes.

Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins, traded by the Lakers for Brown and Laron Profit last August, had 16 and 12 points.

Butler had missed all 15 of his three-point attempts this season but hit a big one with 1:34 to play for a 94-88 Wizard lead.

Said Bryant: “We just have to gain it back, go out and snatch it. It’s a roller-coaster year, it’s a long year. We knew we would have peaks and valleys. Now it’s time to peak again.”