They need Gasol, Bynum back ASAP

The final dagger was inserted and twisted by Warriors forward Stephen Jackson, who took advantage of two defensive lapses in the final minute to sink two three-point shots and kill the Lakers’ comeback hopes.

But the Lakers contributed to their own demise Sunday by playing such fractured and disorganized defense in the first half that by the time they erased all of a 26-point Golden State lead and clawed their way into a two-point lead with just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter, they simply had no energy to sustain it.

The Lakers ran out of bodies -- big bodies, energetic bodies, bodies that didn’t have four fouls attached to them -- and the adversity they had recently been able to overcome instead overcame them.

Their 115-111 loss to Golden State, only their second in the teams’ previous 17 games at Staples Center, pointed up how badly they miss Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol and even Chris Mihm.

With a thin bench, they had to play their starters way too much, and all five exceeded their season average.

Kobe Bryant, the game’s top scorer, played 46 minutes 23 seconds, nearly eight minutes more than his average. Vladimir Radmanovic played 36:41, nearly 15 minutes more than his average. Lamar Odom, who contributed 19 points and a game-high 22 rebounds, played 42:36, five minutes more than his average.

Ronny Turiaf, with a season-high 16 points, played 23:20, about five minutes more than he has averaged. And Derek Fisher played 32:43, more than five minutes more than his average.

And they’ll get to do this all over again tonight in Oakland in the conclusion of a home-and-home series.

“We had a large gap to make up in that third quarter,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “It probably took a lot of energy out of us to get there, but we just couldn’t make a stop down the stretch.”

Please get well soon, Pau.

Need a massage to help your sore ankle heal? Most of the 18,997 fans who witnessed the Lakers’ appalling, 14-turnover first-half performance would be happy to make a house call and apply healing hands if it means getting you back sooner.

You too, Andrew. Please get that knee strong soon so you can restore the down-low presence and imposing defense that the Lakers so badly miss.

Yes, Chris. You, too, would be welcome as soon as you can get back onto the court.

Of that trio, Gasol is closest, perhaps returning late this week. Mihm is hopeful of practicing this week and Bynum is still at least two weeks from returning.

So no immediate help is on the way.

Which means there might be more nights like Sunday in store, nights of a season-worst 72 points scored against them in the first half and frenzied comebacks that sometimes will fall short.

“We hung on and got some huge shots down the stretch,” Warriors Coach Don Nelson said. “They had to expend a lot of energy to get back in.”

Only to fall back down.

The Lakers began the game atop the Western Conference and the Warriors were eighth, making this a possible playoff preview. If that does hold up -- and there’s no guarantee it will, with the standings of the top eight changing almost daily and with Denver chasing Golden State for the final spot -- the Lakers could have a problem on their hands.

“We definitely know what to do,” Turiaf said. “We also know what not to do.”

One idea is not to get confused on the pick and roll, as they did on Jackson’s first three-pointer, when Fisher and Luke Walton each went with Monta Ellis and left Jackson alone.

Another would be to close things down defensively when it matters. On Jackson’s second three-point shot, with 8.1 seconds left, Fisher was late to come up to him and Jackson easily shot over him.

“Sometimes the force is with you and sometimes it isn’t,” Nelson said, “and throughout the game the force can change sides, which they did several times tonight.”

Huh?

Whatever he might have meant -- and he begged off explaining -- it was clear that the force was with the Lakers for most of the second half.

They committed only four turnovers and held Golden State to 15 points in the third quarter and 26.3% shooting in the final 24 minutes.

“The first half of the game, it took some getting used to in terms of how quick their hands are,” Bryant said of the Warriors, whose up-tempo game the Lakers foolishly tried to copy in the first half instead of trying to slow the pace.

“They’re really good at what they do.”

Good enough for the Lakers to be concerned if they meet in the playoffs?

Turiaf said “there’s way too much time left” to worry now. Maybe he’s right: the Lakers have too much else to think about, like how soon they can get Gasol, Mihm and Bynum back and figure out a way to smoothly integrate them into the lineup.

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.