Three Sides to Lakers’ Defeat

It was a return to the past, although not exactly the reemergence of “Showtime” envisioned by owner Jerry Buss.

The Lakers went back Monday to the free-for-all, take-a-three-pointer-anytime-and-anywhere mind-set that characterized their offense earlier this season, when Rudy Tomjanovich was calling the shots and many were taken behind the arc.

The triangle offense got tossed, at least temporarily, to the chagrin of Kobe Bryant and Coach Frank Hamblen in a 95-81 loss to the Washington Wizards in front of 20,173 at MCI Center.

The Lakers were 10 for 34 from three-point range, two off the team-record 36 they attempted Dec. 25 against the Miami Heat, and Washington won the season series for the first time since 1975-76, when the Bullets, as they were called, took three of four from the Lakers.

Kobe Bryant, not up to the dramatic finish he supplied two days earlier in Charlotte, scored 18 points on six-for-22 shooting. Caron Butler had 20 points, Chucky Atkins had 15 and there was little else to talk about in the Laker locker room.

“We were beaten in absolutely every category. Except, I think, we had more assists,” Hamblen said. “There was an awful lot of smoke going on with all the fireworks before the game. Maybe we were a little foggy, I don’t know.

“It was awful. I think the guys are probably embarrassed the way they played. I’m embarrassed the way I had them prepared.”

Twenty-one three-point attempts in the second half, only six of which were made, also ate away at Hamblen.

“It’s way too many,” he said. “I don’t like that.”

Or, as Bryant said: “It was kind of disgusting. When you’re shooting the ball from the outside that much, it’s rolling the dice. Some nights you make them, some nights you don’t.”

They didn’t, allowing a recently struggling Wizard team to win for only the fourth time in 12 games.

Bryant had 21 points in the fourth quarter Saturday against Charlotte, including the winning shot with 0.9 seconds left, but he did not have the same late touch against the Wizards -- three points on one-for-five shooting in the final quarter Monday.

“I was forced to take bailout shots, shot clock going down, taking fadeaways from the corner, things like that,” Bryant said. “Not necessarily good looks, but had to put the ball up to the basket. Tough shots.

“I think it was our execution. They’re a gambling team, they attack the ball. Against a team like that, you have to space them out and execute and cut them up. We don’t have enough experience in the [triangle] offense to be able to make those adjustments.”

Experienced or not, the Lakers failed to move a game ahead of the Denver Nuggets for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. They also missed out on winning three consecutive road games for the first time this season.

“This team, you know what they’ve been like all year,” Hamblen said. “It’s hard for them to put streaks together. We’ve just been inconsistent all year.”

The Lakers were outscored in the paint, 44-20. Center Chris Mihm, bothered by back spasms, had one point in 23 minutes.

The Lakers didn’t allow Gilbert Arenas and Larry Hughes to combine for 70 points as they did when the teams played in December, but the Wizard guards still did their damage, each scoring 21 points.

The Lakers trailed, 73-57, after the third quarter, and by as many as 19 early in the fourth. They closed to within 83-74 after Butler’s three-pointer with 6:03 to play, but there would be no rally for the Lakers, who scored only seven more points.