Lakers Hope It’s Last Straw

SAN ANTONIO â€”  Of all the grim-faced men who walked away from the Lakers’ seventh loss in eight games, the largest one did not limp, did not grimace, did not complain, and that would have to do.

The Lakers on Wednesday night reached what many assume to be the last of their games without Shaquille O’Neal with a 95-88 loss to the San Antonio Spurs. Of those 12 games, they won three, one since Nov. 3, and by the time their chartered jet cleared Texas air space, they were in last place in the Pacific Division.

“We’ve been searching for something to get us turned around,� forward Rick Fox said. “That’s definitely a good start, to get him back on the floor.

“We’d like to think he’s going to make a huge difference. [But] we still have to play better.�

In their first look at the new SBC Center, the Lakers had their best shooting half in two weeks (50% in the first) and followed it with another clunker (31.6% in the second), all the help the Spurs required.

Kobe Bryant, who played on a sprained left ankle and with a sprained left thumb, scored 25 points, but was three for 14 from the field in the second half and 15 for 46 on a two-game trip that started in Dallas.

Stephen Jackson came off the Spur bench and scored 28 points in 29 minutes. His eight three-point field goals, in 10 attempts, were the most ever by a Laker opponent.

The Spurs had a 14-2 run in the fourth quarter that finished the otherwise game Lakers, who held Tim Duncan to seven points in the first three quarters, then allowed him nine in the fourth. The Spurs missed 18 of their first 19 shots and still won, by the end with some ease.

“We played this game well enough to have won,� a tight-lipped Phil Jackson said afterward. “We just wasted an effort down the stretch.�

O’Neal was medically cleared to play by the doctor who performed the surgery, and so the decision lies with him. If he returns as expected Friday and does not sit out another game, he’ll play in 70 games, or three more than he did last season, when the Lakers won 58 games.

Though Jackson hadn’t announced today’s schedule by the time the bus pulled out, Laker players expected to practice today for O’Neal’s benefit.

The Lakers have arrived -- probably -- at the return of O’Neal with some fatigue and faulty shooting, but if he plays Friday they’ve arrived, and that’s the important thing.

Robert Horry (season-high 14 points), Samaki Walker (10 rebounds) and Slava Medvedenko can go back to concentrating on power forwards. The shooters get their cushions back. Everybody might get some rest.

“We just have to continue to get better, that’s all,� Bryant said. “I think with Shaquille getting back, players will get back to their usual niche, what they do for the ballclub, what they feel comfortable in doing. They won’t feel like they have to play out of character. I think everything, you know, will fall into place, slowly but surely.�

So slowly, perhaps, that Jackson refused to consider the fact they’d perhaps reached the season’s first significant marker.

“We’ll talk about that later,� he said. “I can’t anticipate that’s going to be any easier. Chicago beat us last year.... We anticipate Milwaukee [on Sunday] is going to be tough. I mean, we just do not have an easy road ahead of us, where everything’s going to fall into place and turn around.�

But they can hope. O’Neal left their locker room with a smile, and with a plan to play Friday night, and so his teammates could hope too.

“Once we see him on the court, that’s the feeling everybody will have inside,� Brian Shaw said. “Until then, we have to get to the point where we see brighter days. Right now, it’s no fun at all. No fun at all.�