Gloom Descends, but Not for All

The Lakers walked silently and sullenly onto the Pepsi Center court for practice Wednesday, a few minutes after a dog wearing a red cape and using a small basketball finished performing tricks at midcourt.

The symbolism wasn’t lost on observers: The dog days of the Laker season had arrived.

Losers of six consecutive games for the first time in 11 seasons, the Lakers are 4 1/2 games behind the Denver Nuggets for the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Tonight they play the Nuggets, a team that has won 12 of 13 and looks rejuvenated since hiring George Karl.

With that in mind, Coach Frank Hamblen said the Lakers’ tumble toward the lower third of the West has been difficult to handle as he spoke of a playoff berth, saying, “Right now, it isn’t realistic.”

“This franchise has had a lot of success for a long time and they’re redoing it,” he said. “Sometimes you have to pay the piper and we’re going to have to pay the piper for a while. That’s the way it is.”

There are those who feel the Laker season is broken beyond repair -- a difficult point to argue, particularly if there is a loss tonight -- but Kobe Bryant is not among them.

“When your back’s against the wall, you just can’t crawl up and cry,” he said. “I’m not even going to think about [missing the playoffs]. I don’t want to speculate on us not making playoffs because we might make it. We might not make it. Until that day comes, we won’t know what that answer’s going to be.”

Bryant said that everyone’s preseason predictions had the Lakers missing the playoffs; however, most forecasts had them making the playoffs as the seventh or eighth team from the West.

“We might sneak in there,” Bryant said. “I don’t think anybody came into the season expecting us to contend for a title.”

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Nugget swingman Bryon Russell, who averaged four points in 72 games for the Lakers last season and was not re-signed, offered some observations, having watched from afar.

“I thought they should have kept us” together, Russell, averaging 4.9 points, told the Denver Post. “It was different circumstances. It was not up to me. They got what they wanted ... but that’s life.

“I had a great time while I was there. But we are the Denver Nuggets and we’re trying to make the playoffs. Anyone that is tailing us or is a game ahead of us, I hope they lose all of them.”

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Laker forward Lamar Odom will miss a third consecutive game because of a slight labrum tear and bruised rotator cuff in his left shoulder.

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TONIGHT

vs. Denver, 6, Channel 9

Site -- Pepsi Center.

Radio -- 570; 1330.

Records -- Lakers 32-35; Nuggets 36-30.

Record vs. Nuggets -- 2-1.

Update -- The Lakers are 6-31 when an opponent scores 100 or more points and the Nuggets have averaged 115.4 points in their last five games. Six Nuggets scored in double figures Tuesday in a 127-98 rout of the Washington Wizards.