Home is no refuge, as loss reveals what’s missing

So, the Lakers can beat the Mavericks at Dallas, end the Utah Jazz’s 19-game home winning streak at Salt Lake City, prevail in overtime at Golden State and can’t beat the sagging, out-of-the-playoffs Charlotte Bobcats at home?

The incentive of retaining a share of first in the Western Conference apparently wasn’t enough to motivate the Lakers, whose late comeback Wednesday fell way short in a 108-95 loss to the Bobcats at Staples Center.

Continuing a string of flawed defensive efforts, the Lakers gave up 57 points in the first half and then strapped themselves onto Kobe Bryant’s back and hoped he would atone for all of their mistakes -- and erase the 17-point deficit they faced in the third quarter.

Bryant has ignited many rallies before, but that was asking too much even of him.

He scored 27 points but missed the final 3 minutes 40 seconds after getting his second technical foul, apparently for mouthing off about a couple of calls that allowed the Bobcats to extend their lead from six to deep into double figures.

Luke Walton was also assessed a technical foul late in the fourth quarter as the Lakers surprisingly lost their cool -- and with it, their claim on first in the West.

They left the court to boos from those in the sellout crowd of 18,997 who hadn’t already tried to get to the parking lots early. The Lakers might have been booing themselves after losing for the third time in their last five home games.

The Hornets (49-21) moved a game ahead of the Lakers (49-23), and what’s supposed to be a soft patch in the Lakers’ schedule suddenly doesn’t look very soft anymore.

“For some reason we have not played very well at home,” said Derek Fisher, who had only four points in nearly 32 minutes.

“We seem to fail to utilize our home court and our fans, which we were able to do through most of the season. We don’t seem to come out with the focus and commitment we need to have on our home court.”

After Charlotte, the similarly non-playoff-bound Memphis Grizzlies visit Staples Center on Friday, Washington comes here Sunday and Portland visits Wednesday. But as the Lakers’ loss Wednesday proved, there is no chance to relax during this heated playoff scramble.

The only soft thing for the Lakers on Wednesday was their defense, which allowed Charlotte to shoot 50% from the field and carve out a 52-40 rebounding edge.

The Bobcats collected too many easy layups and outscored the Lakers in the paint, 50-36.

Offensively, the Lakers sagged because two of their most effective players lately, Lamar Odom and Ronny Turiaf, cooled off.

Odom, who had averaged more than 18 points and nearly 17 rebounds per game over his previous five games, finished with 18 points -- but only after collecting 13 in the second half. He also had nine rebounds, ending his streak of double-doubles at seven.

Turiaf, starting his seventh consecutive game at center, had 10 points in the first half and only two the rest of the way.

The drop-off in energy for Turiaf was especially noticeable and costly for the Lakers.

Turiaf, who moved from power forward to center after Pau Gasol sprained his left ankle March 14, has regularly contributed his unique energy and equally interesting shot selection.

“I got faith in Ronny as a player who knows how to get it done. He always brings out the hustle,” Gasol said.

“He’s going to give you all he’s got, no matter what. Playing 10 minutes, playing 30 minutes.”

On Wednesday, that hustle and energy were missing in the second half, and the Lakers suffered.

Not that Turiaf was alone in lacking the vigor to pull off a rally.

“In the collective sense, we did have trouble finding team energy,” Fisher said.

Finding it fast would be a fine idea, but it won’t be easy to do while the Lakers remain short-handed. Gasol said Wednesday he doesn’t expect to return for another week, and even though the Lakers’ prospective opponents don’t seem tough, playing so often and under such pressure might wear them down.

Asked whether this had been the Lakers’ most disappointing loss, Fisher thought for a moment.

“Maybe, because of the timing and the fact we just didn’t seem to be playing with the passion we should be playing with at this point,” he said.

Passion can often make up for other failings. Without passion or verve, the Lakers had no chance Wednesday -- and no time to wish for it to miraculously reappear.

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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.

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ON LATIMES.COM

Lakers on the outs in this one

“The quarter wraps itself up with an 82-68 hole for the Lakers to climb out of. . . . They’re also getting outboarded, outdimed and basically out-everythinged during this contest. I’d also go so far as to possibly say outworked as well. IF anything, they’re getting out-focused. We’ll see what happens in the fourth.” For more from our Lakers bloggers, go to lakersblog.latimes.com.