Hamblen Blasts Effort After Loss to Denver

The Laker season, what’s left of it, took another ragged step toward conclusion, the latest loss more costly for the Lakers than any of the six that directly preceded it.

A chance to gain on the team they are chasing for a playoff spot turned into another defensive carnival for the Lakers and led to a divided house over whether the Lakers quit in the second half, as Coach Frank Hamblen said afterward.

The aftermath was as unattractive for the Lakers as the game itself, a 117-96 loss in front of 19,866 who seemed to revel just as much in the Lakers’ demise as in the Denver Nuggets’ fortunes Thursday at the Pepsi Center.

The Lakers trailed at halftime, 54-49, but were outscored the rest of the way, 63-47, by the short-handed Nuggets, who moved 5 1/2 games ahead of the Lakers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Lakers have 14 games left.

“The second half, I thought our guys quit to some degree,” Hamblen said. “I was really disappointed when Caron Butler stole the ball, went full length for a layup, missed the layup, and his four teammates stood at the other end of the floor within the three-point area, not making one effort to run down there just in case he missed the basket, to put it back in. Not one of them.”

Kobe Bryant, Chucky Atkins, Chris Mihm and Jumaine Jones were also on the court.

“I ain’t got no comment to that, man,” said Atkins, who had 10 points, four in the second half. “I don’t have no comment to that. I ain’t going to never give up. We give up? I don’t know nothing about that. I speak for myself, I’m going to give it everything I’ve got as long as I’m out there.”

Bryant had 18 points, only four in the second half, and made five of 13 shots.

“I don’t know,” Bryant said when asked about Hamblen’s assessment. “I felt that we played pretty hard. We got down by 20-something points, we might have hung our heads a little bit, but I felt like we battled hard. They just played much better than we did.”

Much, much better.

The Nuggets had more assists, a better field-goal percentage, more free throws and fewer turnovers.

The Laker defense has given up more than 100 points in six consecutive games, and the Lakers are 6-32 when they commit such an act.

Denver guard DerMarr Johnson, Bryant’s assignment on defense most of the night, had 20 points in only 24 minutes.

“It’s their livelihood,” Hamblen said. “They’re starting to erode my immune system, I’ll tell you that.”

The Lakers have a monumental effort ahead if they are to extend the league’s longest active playoff streak to 11 seasons.

Losers of seven consecutive games for the first time since April 1994, the Lakers are failing to keep pace with a Denver team that has won 13 of its last 14.

The Lakers also fell 2 1/2 games behind the ninth-place Minnesota Timberwolves and are suddenly only one game ahead of the Clippers.

With that in mind, there appear to be few activities left for the Lakers other than studying pingpong ball probabilities and determining whom to send to Secaucus, N.J., as the team lottery representative in May.

“From the success this franchise has had over the years and in the last five years, it’s hard for those of us who have remained with the team to accept this,” said Hamblen, who served as Phil Jackson’s assistant for five years before taking over midway through this season.

“Not the losing; it’s how you lose, how you compete or do not compete.”

The Lakers played a third consecutive game without Lamar Odom, who sat out because of a slight tear and bruised rotator cuff in his left shoulder, but the Nuggets were without two injured starters, center Marcus Camby and power forward Kenyon Martin.

Not even the return of Devean George, who had been sidelined all season because of complications from off-season ankle surgery, did much to spark the Lakers. George had eight points and committed six fouls in 16 minutes.

“We have no cohesiveness, we have no togetherness, and to be honest with you, it’s frustrating,” Atkins said.

Hamblen, adding further emphasis to the Laker fall, entered the locker room after the game and scribbled on the board the score of the Lakers’ opening-day game against the Nuggets: 89-78, Lakers.

“The journey of 66 games since then shows you how they’ve journeyed upward and we’ve journeyed downward,” Hamblen said. “The fact that Voshon Lenard got hurt that game and hasn’t played since, and they had two starters out today, I think really speaks volumes.”

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West Race

NBA Western Conference standings. The top eight teams qualify for the playoffs. (*-denotes division leaders):

*--* TEAM W-L PCT GB 1. Phoenix * 51-16 761 -- 2. San Antonio * 50-18 735 1 1/2 3. Seattle * 47-20 701 4 4. Dallas 45-23 662 6 1/2 5. Sacramento 43-27 614 9 1/2 6. Houston 41-27 603 10 1/2 7. Memphis 39-28 582 12 8. Denver 37-30 552 14 9. Minnesota 35-34 507 3 10. LAKERS 32-36 471 5 1/2 11. CLIPPERS 31-37 456 6 1/2

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