Lakers Don’t Give It Second Thought

OAKLAND —  Then there are the games when it seems they barely know each other, when it is Oct. 1 again and they’ve all just gotten off the plane in Oahu, squinting at the dazzling talent around them.

With dull eyes and almost no fight, playing without Karl Malone and seemingly feeling his absence with every labored footfall, the Lakers were beaten by the Golden State Warriors, 107-98, Tuesday night at The Arena in Oakland.

The Lakers of the historic signings of Malone and Gary Payton, of two superstars already in hand, lost for the third time in five games, once thought to be an unthinkable week and a half.

Malone missed his first full game because of a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee. He played only four minutes Sunday night, when he suffered the injury, and is not expected to play again for at least a week.

“I don’t think you can put this one on Karl being here or not being here at all,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “But I know that if he was here he would have [put] a bit more fight in our team.”

It left three of their fantastic four against the mediocre Warriors. It left Shaquille O’Neal against Erick Dampier. It left Payton back in his hometown, where he hardly remembers ever losing. It left Kobe Bryant, stuck somewhere between doing too much and not enough.

And, yet, they lacked conviction in their game, particularly in a second quarter the Lakers lost, 38-15.

Payton looked back over the loss, over the three in five games, and said, “I don’t know what it is. I ain’t going to make no guesses trying to figure it out.

“You know what, I don’t know what I’m feeling right now. I can’t even tell you. I’m trying to stay afloat right now, just get through it.... I’m looking at it the way you all are looking at it. I can’t figure it out my own ... self.”

When he was finished, after he had waded through the standing ovation from the crowd and questions from reporters, Payton went into the coaches’ office and found Jackson. They spoke for a while, Payton talking and Jackson nodding as they returned to the locker room.

The offense has been slow to come anyway, and the defense spotty, even at what is now 20-6 and no longer leading the Sacramento Kings in the Pacific Division. So, every drop of talent -- in or out of Jackson’s triangle -- had become critical, particularly as the new players learned to play in and around Bryant’s variances.

Without the steadying influence of Malone, whose simple glance sometimes has been enough to soothe their frayed emotions, the Lakers appeared unsettled after a 31-point first quarter. O’Neal had 21 points and five rebounds in 39 minutes. Bryant, thanks to a late three-point jag when the Warriors defended him with tiny Speedy Claxton, scored 23.

Payton, however, played with something that appeared like detached anger, even playing in Oakland for the first time as a Laker. He missed all four of his free throws. He took one shot and did not score in the second half. He had eight assists in the first half, 13 for the game, but, more than anyone, he seems to be struggling with the whole convergence-of-talent idea.

Jackson dismissed it.

“I thought he had an off night tonight,” Jackson said. “I would admit that. But I don’t think there’s any mystery out there. I don’t think that’s the problem as it is right now.”

The problem, for the moment, is in a rough patch that was supposed to bring victories. The schedule is light. The travel is lighter.

And yet, O’Neal missed some short shots and Bryant took only three shots in the first half, and all of them strained to hold back the more vibrant Warriors. They wore throw-back jerseys (1965-66 road blues) in a throw-it-back game.

Even then, it wasn’t the beating, perhaps, as much as how they took it.

Against a Warrior team that has spent the better part of two weeks on the road, and was weary for it, the Lakers had the ponderous legs and the glazed expressions.

They looked at each other and shrugged a lot. As they did, Clifford Robinson scored a season-high 24 points. Nick Van Exel, bothersome for the Lakers since he left Los Angeles, scored 13. Dampier scored 17.

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Undermanned

The Lakers lost for the first time in five games in which one of their Big Four didn’t play:

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*--* OCT. 28 VS. DALLAS Lakers won, 109-93 Who didn’t play: Kobe Bryant. Who stepped up: Derek Fisher (16 points). NOV. 23 VS. MEMPHIS Lakers won, 121-89 Who didn’t play: Shaquille O’Neal. Who stepped up: Slava Medvedenko (14 points, 11 rebounds). NOV. 26 VS. WASHINGTON Lakers won, 120-99 Who didn’t play: O’Neal. Who stepped up: Kareem Rush (14 points), Medvedenko (11 points), Bryon Russell (10 points). DEC. 7 VS. UTAH Lakers won, 94-92 Who didn’t play: Karl Malone. Who stepped up: Medvedenko (15 points). DEC. 23 AT GOLDEN STATE Warriors won, 107-98 Who didn’t play: Malone. Who stepped up: Medvedenko (12 points), but Russell, Horace Grant and Luke Walton combined for only eight points.

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