No kidding, Lakers have big problems

Stowing his clothes in his Staples Center locker for the Lakers’ first home game after their grim, two-week jaunt across North America, Kobe Bryant was optimistic that the team would be able to stop the bleeding that began during a 3-5 trip.

“I feel great. I feel like we’re in Shangri-La,” he said. “I felt like kissing the ground when we got here.”

Home might be where the Lakers’ hearts are, but it wasn’t where their minds and their game were on Tuesday.

In an effort that was more homely than inspired by the comforts of home, the Lakers lost to the New York Knicks for the second time in two weeks, 107-106. Aside from Bryant, who missed the teams’ game at New York because of a league-imposed suspension but contributed 31 points on Tuesday, the Lakers’ first unit was flat and uninspired beyond the limits of normal fatigue.

The second unit was more energetic, with Jordan Farmar handing out three assists and Maurice Evans providing 16 points. But Ronny Turiaf got into foul trouble in the second quarter and the Knicks shot 50% from the floor in erasing a five-point halftime deficit, handing the Lakers their fourth straight loss and 10th in their last 14 games.

They’ve lost three games in a row at Staples Center, starting with overtime losses to Charlotte and San Antonio before they headed East, and they have only one game left before the All-Star break.

“We need sutures,” Bryant said, “but not major surgery.”

Clearly, they need much more than chicken soup.

“We’ve got to get the rebound,” Bryant said, then repeated it, for emphasis.

“We’ve got to get the ball back,” he said. “We do a good job defensively making them take tough shots but then we can’t get the rebound....

“We’ve got to learn how to squeeze teams.”

Bryant wasn’t referring to a specific play or sequence, but to a pattern that has emerged in their late-game losses. Coach Phil Jackson lamented the same general failing.

“I thought we made some stops, but then we couldn’t get the second-chance rebounds on the thing,” he said.

“They made some critical plays, we missed ours down the stretch tonight and the game was won by second-chance opportunities in the last couple minutes of the game where we didn’t capture a rebound.

“They played well. They played well enough to beat us.”

The Knicks are better than they were a year ago, shaking off the “despondency” Jackson said he saw in them last season.

Their guards penetrated well and set up teammates for a lot of easy plays, as Jackson noted, and in winning on Tuesday, the Knicks matched the 23 victories they recorded last season.

But if the Lakers have ambitions of winning a playoff round or more, they can’t be losing to teams like the 23-29 Knicks twice in two weeks.

They shouldn’t have lost once, but at least in their 99-94 loss on Jan. 30, Bryant was sitting out a suspension. If they wanted to claim jet lag as an excuse on Tuesday -- center Andrew Bynum said before the game that he was “still on East Coast time” -- it won’t wash.

“Tired? No,” said Lamar Odom, who was defended well on a potential winning shot in the waning seconds.

“We’re like the second- or third-youngest team in the NBA.”

Young or old, some truths have become apparent for the Lakers, who may be pushed to retain the sixth playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Their defense will be hurting down low as long as Kwame Brown nurses his sprained ankle. Bynum, worn down by the rigors of playing so many minutes in so many time zones, is still figuring out how to defend the screen-and-roll, and his defensive rotations are weak.

Overall, trading for Jason Kidd is beginning to look like a better and better option for the Lakers. The chances of pulling off a deal are probably slim because of the luxury-tax considerations, but it’s worth seriously considering for a team that is one game ahead of seventh-place Denver in the loss column.

A team that simply hasn’t found its defensive rhythm or a semblance of cohesion. A team that misses injured Luke Walton and needs more from Odom than the tentative player he has been since his knee injury, the one who had no points in the first half on Tuesday and finished with 12.

Odom said that the Lakers’ losing streak should not be blown out of proportion and that the resolution to their problems lies in the locker room as well as in the players still in the training room.

“I don’t think four games is going to take away our capabilities,” he said.

The range of those capabilities remains murky for now.

“We’ve got to play smarter,” Bryant said. “We’ve got to play with a sense of purpose.”

If their purpose is to win a championship while Bryant and Odom are still at their primes, Kidd could be the answer. It’s one way to suture those holes and hasten the healing process that must take place for the Lakers to reclaim the promise they showed early this season.

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helene.elliott@latimes.com