Lakers can rise to challenge when facing a poor team

Maybe they’re finally over it, a strange malady that sometimes seeps into the Lakers when they play bad teams.

It’s been a weird occurrence since they were winning championships with Shaquille O’Neal but also posting clunkers on any given night in the regular season.

Last season, on the long road to the franchise’s 15th championship, the Lakers lost to Indiana, Sacramento and Charlotte (twice), not to mention mediocre Miami and Philadelphia teams.

The year before that, they had humbling losses to Milwaukee, New Jersey, Sacramento (twice), Golden State (twice), Charlotte and Memphis.

Obviously, even the best teams have bad nights against bad teams, but Brian Shaw has experienced the phenomenon as a Lakers assistant coach the last five seasons and as a guard on three Lakers championship teams earlier this decade.

“Sometimes it’s just a natural thing,” he said Monday. “You don’t necessarily let your guard down, but you’re like, ‘OK, let’s just hurry up and get it over with,’ and you just lose focus.

“The opposite of that was [last month] when we played Phoenix, who was undefeated when we played them, so everybody was real focused and amped up for that.”

If the last two weeks are any indication, the Lakers (13-3) don’t like to lose, particularly to teams with second-rate records. Their last six opponents had a combined record of 29-68 -- and the Lakers have won easily, their average margin of victory a breezy 17.7 points.

Shaw, however, doesn’t consider it a new trend . . . yet.

“The games that we’ve been winning by 18 a game, we could be winning by 30,” he said. “The second unit has still not meshed. They haven’t shown that they can hold on to a lead or that Phil [Jackson] can completely trust them if it’s a tight game.”

To make sure the Lakers don’t gag against poor teams, Shaw also puts pressure on other people -- namely himself and the rest of the coaching staff.

Jackson agrees with him. “That’s really my job and our coaches and our captains’ job,” he said. “It’s to keep the team motivated and keep driving them forward and not just be complacent.”

The Lakers get another losing team tonight, New Orleans (7-10), without All-Star guard Chris Paul, who has missed seven games because of a sprained left ankle.

Forward Ron Artest has a unique way of staying motivated against weaker teams. “We’re sort of the underdogs,” he said.

Right, the defending NBA champions are the underdogs.

“That’s how you’ve got to feel,” Artest said. “It feels like every time we play an opponent, they’re always coming out hard. We don’t get no breaks, so that’s how we have to play.”

Artest’s line

What free-throw woes?

Artest is shooting a dismal 52.2% from the line this season, well below his career average of 72.0%, but said he didn’t sense any problem with it.

“It’s not struggling for me. I’ve made a couple over the last couple games,” he said. “I feel like I’m playing great. I feel like my free throws are 100%.”

Huh? Artest didn’t shoot any Sunday against New Jersey, made three of five Saturday against Golden State and one of two against both New York and Oklahoma City.

Still, he threw in a hint of O’Neal, who famously promised that he would make all his free-throw attempts in clutch time.

“There’s going to come a point in time where I’m going to be at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter,” he said. “I’ve got to make it, so I can’t worry.”

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

twitter.com/Mike_Bresnahan

Times staff writer Broderick Turner contributed to this report.