L.A. Teams Meet at Crossroads

You’ve got to give it to the little guys from across the tracks, they were out-gunned and out-played but they kept fighting and even if they lost, they were still right there at the end.

The Lakers, I mean.

Here’s a newsflash, no ships passed in the night Friday. That happened 16 months ago when the Lakers off-loaded Shaquille O’Neal.

A few days later, Kobe Bryant re-signed, but only after going right up to his deadline thinking he might go to the Clippers. Otherwise, Laker games would now be like Clipper games, only more expensive, and vice versa, but cheaper.

Oh, they are, anyway?

A year ago, aside from their high hopes, the Lakers had Bryant, Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Chucky Atkins, Chris Mihm and cap room in 2007.

The Clippers had Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, Bobby Simmons, Chris Kaman, Shaun Livingston, Chris Wilcox and cap room in 2005.

The Clippers effectively lost their entire backcourt, with Livingston, Marko Jaric and Kerry Kittles missing 155 of a possible 246 games, and still finished three games ahead of the Lakers.

A year later, it isn’t even close. The Clippers added Sam Cassell and Cuttino Mobley. The Lakers added Kwame Brown and Smush Parker.

The distance between them is wider than Friday’s 97-91 score. The Lakers would kill to get their hands on Wilcox, who played 13 minutes, or, for that matter, Zeljko Rebraca, who played three.

Once it was the Clippers who lived to beat the Lakers. Not that Friday didn’t mean something to long-suffering Donald T. Sterling, who made a triumphant return to the rivalry, but it had only symbolic importance.

A Clipper loss would have been embarrassing but wouldn’t have changed the real balance of power, any more than any of their five wins in the Shaq-Kobe era (against 27 losses) changed anything. Afterward, Brand sniffed, “We were better than them last year. We have to shoot for the teams above us.”

It’s a tad early to congratulate the Clippers and even if Laker fans are disappointed and it’s fun, this isn’t about piling on them. Both teams are where they are and what counts is what happens next.

The Clippers have a rare opportunity. If they can get the promising Livingston back and cut Cassell’s minutes, they may really have something.

On the other hand, their new era is as fragile as a baby blue robin’s egg sitting unprotected in a nest. A few bad breaks and Mike Dunleavy, who has been empowered to try to start a new tradition -- for the moment -- can be abandoned and tossed on the ash heap of Clipper history, with all the coaches who preceded him.

The Lakers are at their own crossroads, with dismay rising again as their 3-1 start turns into a 4-5 reality check and talk radio starts to finger the usual suspect.

The hard truth is, this had to happen and Jerry Buss did it, not Mitch Kupchak. If they made a lot of mistakes and entertained a lot of illusions, they had to do what they did.

Even if Buss says it was purely a financial decision -- which would take the heat off Bryant -- the fact is that keeping O’Neal meant losing Bryant.

Now in this brave, new world, they’re hoping they can build around two stars, but until they solve the Lamar Mystery, they only have one.

With Odom still tiptoeing around Bryant, Brown a non-factor and Parker just beginning to emerge, the offense has devolved into Bryant taking 71 shots in the last two games, missing 49.

Phil Jackson’s attempt to recast Odom in Scottie Pippen’s point forward role may be on its last legs. In coaches’ jargon, Pippen was a “three-two,” a forward who could play guard and made himself into a decent three-point shooter (34% in his last 10 seasons.) Odom is a “three-four” or a “four-three,” meaning he’s either a power forward who can play small forward, or vice versa. After all this time, nobody is sure yet.

Odom made 36% of his threes as a rookie but is at 29.7% since. Everybody knows the best part of his game is around the basket, but the problem is how to get him there.

Nothing Rudy Tomjanovich or Frank Hamblen tried worked. Now Lamar has to drive through the entire defense to get to the hoop, which isn’t easy to do with opponents happy to let him try to beat them over the top and knowing he always goes left.

Whatever else Odom is supposed to do isn’t getting done. As Tex Winter told the Orange County Register’s Kevin Ding, “Scottie’s one of the quickest learners I’ve ever coached. Big difference.”

Odom still has possibilities. Brown is more limited despite his bionic body and athleticism. His problems are so basic, the Lakers talk about trying to help him learn to jump and catch the ball -- things that typically are either there or aren’t.

Not that that deal looks like any master stroke, but the Lakers then had Mihm, Brian Cook, Brian Grant and Vlade Divac up front -- a power forward, a small forward, an amnesty case and a retiree -- and were desperate for a big man.

Brown’s contract is big -- $15.2 million over two seasons -- but short with a team option for a third season. Unless he makes a move, it’ll be two and through. See you.

In their heyday, the Lakers were a thin team, just O’Neal and Bryant and some helpers. Now it’s Bryant and some helpers.

The mistake is the same one everyone has made since O’Neal got on the plane, thinking it wouldn’t be that hard and had to work in the end, because it always had. The truth, as revealed every day, is it’s that hard and anything but inevitable.

Faces and Figures

Minnesota’s Kevin Garnett made it clear he misses former Coach Flip Saunders and teammates Cassell and Latrell Sprewell and blames owner Glen Taylor and GM Kevin McHale. “I feel like we need a couple of guys who not only can draw defenses but make everybody else better,” Garnett said. “ ... If Glen and Kevin decide they don’t want to bring anybody else in here or go in a different direction from bringing in the most talent to make the team better, decisions will have to be made. I’m trying to win. I’m not trying to restart, I’m not trying to revamp. To play to win is now. Not tomorrow.” ... Agent Bob Gist said the Lakers have called but Sprewell won’t play for the veteran’s minimum of $1.1 million, which is all they can offer. “Anyone who thinks he should play for that, that’s absurd,” Gist told SI.com. “He might as well retire. Latrell doesn’t need the money that badly. To go from being offered $7 million to taking $1 million, that would be a slap in the face.” ... Not that Sprewell has an attitude or anything, but Gist says the Pistons offered more but Spree didn’t like the idea of coming and not starting.... Stay tuned: The Knicks’ Stephon Marbury now says he wants to move to shooting guard. Coach Larry Brown says he has to stay at the point and pass the ball because they have no one else. Marbury says the team president would never trade him because of their personal bond. Isiah Thomas backed off his old stance, noting that anyone could be traded.

You could time the rest of Paul Pierce’s Celtic career with a stopwatch as they think out loud about trading him. “What the Pistons did, what the White Sox did this year, what the Patriots have done, you’re seeing it all through sports now,” Coach Doc Rivers said. “Teams win. Teams always won, but the old adage was you had to get as many superstars as you could. That’s changing a little bit, I think, because the average players are much better than they used to be.”