Mastering the Fadeaway

The Lakers have lost three consecutive games by a combined nine points, showing an ability to hang close before fading late.

What, Phil Jackson worry?

“We’re playing well,” the Laker coach said. “What am I going to complain about? It’s about playing well and competing and being in ballgames. We’re losing games that are close and we have to learn to win those games. Those things balance out and we just have to stay the course.”

The Lakers lost to three potential playoff teams: Miami by five points, Washington by three and Memphis in overtime by one. Still, some Laker players, Kobe Bryant in particular, have been agitated and demonstrative during the recent skid.

“They’re young and dumb,” Jackson said jokingly. “They’re going to be emotional about it this time. They don’t have a long perspective of a season and 82 games. We do. We’ve been through these seasons and we know they’re long, enduring marathon runs.”

The Lakers are 15-14, a game behind the pace of their 16-13 start a year ago.

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The Lakers have been struggling in the second half, when a thin bench and sometimes stagnant offense catches up to them. They had 34 points in the second half Wednesday against Memphis and 29 Monday against Washington.

“It seems to me that in the third and fourth quarter, we just stop running our offense,” guard Smush Parker said. “We stop moving the ball around, stop cutting, the ball stops being swung around. It is really hurting the team. The ball moves in the first half. Everybody got some touches and everybody was in the game [against Memphis].”

The Laker bench, already without Aaron McKie, Slava Medvedenko and Laron Profit because of injuries, was further thinned against Memphis when forward Devean George started in place of Brian Cook, who had flu-like symptoms.

The Laker bench had six points, all by Luke Walton. Reserve center Kwame Brown was scoreless and had four rebounds in 21 minutes.

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An Internet report made the rounds Thursday, and local talk-radio lines buzzed amid speculation that Indiana Pacer forward Ron Artest and Toronto Raptor guard Jalen Rose would be traded to the Lakers, a combined salary package worth $22 million this season.

Laker officials adamantly denied the report, which had Devean George and another unnamed Laker as part of a three-team trade.

The Lakers would have to give up about $16.5 million in salaries this season to make such a deal work within league trade guidelines. George makes $5 million this season, which means the Lakers would also have to trade Lamar Odom to make the report accurate, an unlikely scenario, a team source said.