Lakers limp toward finish

Now they have real issues.

Forget jockeying for sixth place, and maybe seventh too. The new question swirling around the Lakers: Will they even make the playoffs?

Their latest stumble came against the Phoenix Suns, a 93-85 loss Friday at US Airways Center that made the battle for the last two playoff spots in the Western Conference a down-to-the-wire certainty.

The Lakers (40-40) lead the Clippers and Golden State by half a game for seventh place. Because the Lakers own tie-breakers over both teams, they would clinch a playoff berth by winning their final two games -- a home game Sunday against Seattle and a road game Wednesday against Sacramento. They would also clinch a playoff spot with one victory in their final two games and a loss by either the Clippers or Warriors in their final three games.

Either way, the Lakers are staggering, losers of eight of their last 10 and owners of the third-worst record in the league since Jan. 17, their 14-27 mark ahead of only Memphis and Minnesota.

And Kobe Bryant, their backbone most of the season, had one of his poorest nights of the season: 17 points on seven-for-26 shooting. He played all 48 minutes Thursday against the Clippers and looked fatigued against the Suns, making two of 11 shots in the second half.

Bryant has missed the playoffs only once in his prior 10 seasons, and Coach Phil Jackson has never missed the playoffs in his 16-year NBA career. (His CBA teams never missed the playoffs, either.) Now they are tied to the same late-season fate.

It was the type of game that would be hard to criticize in, say, mid-January, the Lakers coming into the home of the league’s second-best team and hanging around until the final few minutes.

But they were down, 88-83, when they were called for a 24-second violation after trying to sneak in one too many passes with 1:03 to play. Then Bryant missed a pair of three-point attempts in the final 37 seconds, and the chance was lost.

“Kobe was not his normal self out there,” Jackson said.

Bryant was asked afterward if he was worried.

“Not really,” he said. “We’ve been a good do-or-die team all year. We don’t have much of a choice but to come out and win these games. It should be interesting.”

Recently, the Lakers have done more dying than doing, which is why Jackson gave them a reason to perform at the morning shoot-around.

“I challenged them today by telling them that if they’re going to finish games like they’ve finished the last three, four games, where we can’t produce in the fourth quarter, why should we go in the playoffs?” he said. “We’re just going to be four and out in that situation. We have to start doing things that produce wins in the fourth quarter.”

After the game, after the TV cameras had left, and a few reporters still hung around him, Jackson said he expected to make the playoffs.

“I still think we’re going to end up with the Suns in the playoffs,” he said. “That’s my own predilection. That all being said and done, we have to right ourselves and find a way to play basketball games together.”

The Suns, who received 26 points and 14 assists from Steve Nash, didn’t seem too concerned about playing the Lakers in the first round, if that were the case.

“I don’t think it would go seven,” Suns center Amare Stoudemire told reporters in Phoenix a day before the game. “I think we would take care of them pretty quick, hopefully, if everything goes as planned.”

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com