Missing a Three Badly

It’s a curious little problem for the Lakers, one that puts them in the company of the New Orleans Hornets, Charlotte Bobcats and Atlanta Hawks, a trio of hapless teams, to be sure.

The Lakers’ failure to win three consecutive games was again on display Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets, officially transitioning from a minor annoyance to a maddening character flaw in the eyes of Laker players and coaches.

The Lakers misfired far too often from three-point range, and Coach Rudy Tomjanovich offered up cutting words that went well against his dig-for-the-positives nature after a 95-83 loss to the Nuggets in front of 18,171 at Pepsi Center.

Tomjanovich went at the team in a “very animated” way after the game, Kobe Bryant said, and he hadn’t cooled by the time he fielded reporters’ questions in an exasperated manner, his demeanor topped only by the time he refused to talk to reporters because he was so furious with the referees after a November loss in Phoenix.

“I don’t know [the answer],” Tomjanovich said after the Lakers failed to win three consecutive games for a seventh time this season. “I wish I knew. It just seems like we’ve been in a position to take a nice step forward after winning two games, which we’ve done several times, and it was a big bleepin’ disappointment.

“Defensively, turnovers early, we just didn’t have it. Is it a psychological thing, that’s all the success we can take and it’s enough? I don’t know. But we’ve got to grow out of that.”

Tomjanovich noted that a stern halftime talk went all but unnoticed, a 49-35 halftime score swelling to a 20-point Laker deficit.

“There’s no response,” Tomjanovich said. “When you do those things, there is no response.”

Bryant made five of 14 shots and had only 16 points, his third-lowest total this season. He had 42 points in the Lakers’ Jan. 2 victory over the Nuggets, prompting a series of volleys with interim Nugget Coach Michael Cooper, who said his team had held Bryant “in check” that night.

“If that’s keeping me in check,” Bryant said at the time, “wait until next time.”

To which Cooper replied: “I’ve always been taught to show me again.”

There wasn’t much of a showing by the Lakers.

They were sluggish from the free-throw line, making 22 of 32, and they staggered from three-point range, making only five of 29.

Lamar Odom made four of 12 shots and had 13 points. Chucky Atkins, Jumaine Jones, Caron Butler and Brian Cook were a combined 0 for 17 from three-point range.

As if to rub it in, the Nuggets’ costumed mascot, Rocky, drilled a shot from halfcourt with his back to the basket during a fourth-quarter timeout.

Throughout the game, Tomjanovich kept telling the players on the court to attack, not settle for long jumpers.

“We did have some settles,” Tomjanovich acknowledged afterward.

And to think some Denver players didn’t get home until 10 a.m. Wednesday, 12 hours after their Tuesday night game ended in Sacramento. The Nuggets’ charter jet circled the Denver airport for an hour because of snow flurries, was finally cleared to land, and almost overshot the runway, forcing an urgent return back up toward the clouds.

The plane then headed 70 miles south to Colorado Springs, where it finally landed, the Nuggets’ voyage ending only after a three-hour bus ride back to Denver, twice the normal time element because of poor road conditions.

“We could have played in London,” fatigued Nugget forward Rodney White said.

As the Nuggets were bouncing in and out of airports, the Lakers didn’t leave their hotel much, conducting a morning shoot-around in a hotel ballroom, slapping down masking tape on the floor to form a makeshift lane and carrying on about their business until center Chris Mihm took a shot at a lamp. The lamp lost.

Perhaps it was indicative of things to come.

The Lakers, who scored only 14 points in the second quarter, allowed the Nuggets to penetrate with ease and post up without resistance.

“Every time we lose, basically we’ve had the same discussion,” Odom said. “It’s just team defense. It’s too easy.”