Ever vulnerable, ever fragile, the Lakers reached their season's symbolic halfway point with yet another loss that defied reason, other than the figure in gray on their gloomy bench.
They said they couldn't wait for the woeful Chicago Bulls to get to Staples Center. Remember? Said the thuggish Bulls would pay for their ugliness.
Then, on Wednesday night, with Shaquille O'Neal resting his big right toe eight chairs from Phil Jackson, the Lakers lost again to the Bulls, 97-89, at Staples Center.
Including a road loss to the Clippers, the Lakers have lost four of five games in their arena.
The Lakers went to the All-Star break clinging to Kobe Bryant. They had won four games in a row, all on the road, all with O'Neal, who was the conference's player of the week for that contribution.
Bryant scored 38 points, and could not hold off the Bulls, in part because he had eight turnovers. He was the only Laker with more than 11 points, and so the Bulls rode Marcus Fizer's 21 points and Kevin Ollie's 15 to their second consecutive victory against the Lakers, twice-defending NBA champions.
"It's not embarrassing," Bryant said. "It's just very upsetting. I don't think we matched their intensity. I don't think we understood how hard they played."
The Lakers had 20 turnovers and missed 14 of 17 threes, and so begged the Bulls to run and score easily. Six of the Lakers' 13 losses were to last-place teams.
"We talked about our ability to respond to game situations," Jackson said, "and the fact we didn't meet the qualifications, the parameters, that this game demanded."
Charmed by the Dallas Mavericks' zone defense three days before, Jackson ordered the Lakers into a 2-3 alignment in the fourth quarter, and the Bulls appeared uncomfortable with it. Late offensive fouls by Fizer and Ron Artest were due, in part, to them charging into the middle of the Laker defense, on consecutive possessions. On the next, the shot clock expired on the Bulls, and the Lakers drew to within 81-80 on Samaki Walker's layup.
From there, the Bulls outscored the Lakers, 16-9, and went merrily into their break, with 11 victories.
The Lakers played for the ninth time in 46 games without O'Neal. They are 5-4 without him.
By early in the second quarter it was clear the Lakers would win only if Bryant could stay with the Bulls offensively, and if the rest of the Lakers could defend the undertalented but game Bulls.
