Lakers Need to Break From Their Routine

With their Western Conference semifinal series against the San Antonio Spurs tied at 1-1, the Lakers got down to business Wednesday.

They took their seats at the tables lined up along the far side of the gym, grabbed the pens and began signing basketball after basketball--a couple dozen boxes’ worth.

Every team in the league holds these kinds of autograph sessions to stock up on supplies for charity events. Most aren’t presumptive enough to schedule them in the middle of the second round of the playoffs, but the Lakers were expected to still be around, playing not only in May but well into June.

With that assumption in place the Lakers seemed to view everything before the NBA Finals just like their autographing duties--one big obligation. Show up, play, travel, play. Sign, pass the ball down, sign. As routine as an assembly line.

You would think the playoffs would break the monotony, like Laverne and Shirley sticking a glove on a beer bottle passing by in the brewery.

But the postseason in and of itself didn’t bring about inspired play. They kept doing just enough to win.

A 16-point deficit to the Spurs at halftime in Game 2? That got their attention.

In the second half they hustled, with even Shaquille O’Neal hitting the deck to grab a ball. They shot 50% and committed only five turnovers. Kobe Bryant, playing all 24 minutes, scored 20 points on nine-for-17 shooting. O’Neal had 13 in 20 minutes. They came up with seven steals.

If they played that way all the time they could start choosing ring designs right now.

“I don’t think we can sustain that effort for 48 minutes,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “Not too many teams can. We can play some defense and we can get some urgency to our game.

“We need to have that sense of urgency to start some games. And we haven’t. We’ve been too controlled and too thoughtful, perhaps.”

It’s time to wonder if they’ll come to their senses before it’s too late. It already cost them a game. It could come back to cost them a series.

As Rick Fox said, “You come out on cruise control and you’re going to get spanked around at this time of year.”

The Lakers should beat the Spurs because they’re just better. If anything, Tuesday night reaffirmed that. They gave San Antonio the first two quarters, the Spurs played harder from start to finish and yet the Lakers still had a chance to tie the score or go ahead on their last possession.

But Game 2 also showed you can’t assume everything will follow form. The officials didn’t give the Lakers any breaks you’d expect for the defending champions playing at home. Only two free throws in the first half? Only two for Bryant the entire game? As forensic expert Henry Lee said in the O.J. Simpson trial: “Something wrong.”

“What’s wrong with the Lakers?” was a question asked throughout the league, even as they won their first four playoff games.

Their sleepwalking ways aren’t simply a Laker problem or a today’s-athletes problem. The greats need a challenge before them for motivation. In a recent interview with Oscar Robertson, he said that it was top-notch opponents that got him up for games.

“Competition is the thing that makes you go,” Robertson said. Playing against “Jerry West, Walt Frazier or Dick Barnett, you’re going to pick your game up.

“Sometimes you go in to a basketball game, you don’t feel like playing. When the horn blows, that turns you on.”

And that’s coming from a guy who averaged a triple-double every game 40 seasons ago.

Another quote that’s jumping out of the notebook is from Laker assistant coach Tex Winter. He has coached both the Michael Jordan/Scottie Pippen combo and the Shaquille O’Neal/Kobe Bryant duo.

“The thing I’ve learned--really, in a way I’m sort of obsessed with it--is the fact that it’s a team game,” Winter said. “It’s not the superstars necessarily that wins for you, it’s the chemistry of the ballclub. It’s how those superstars are utilized in conjunction with their complementary players. Generally it’s that X-factor in the complementary players that makes the difference.”

The Lakers are having a hard time finding third and fourth scoring options behind O’Neal and Bryant. Teams are less reluctant to leave Derek Fisher open for three-pointers after his sizzling shooting in last year’s playoffs. So they’ll run at him, force him to put the ball on the floor and try to get to the basket, where he’s having trouble finishing. Devean George is playing hard but not shooting well. And there are fewer shot opportunities for everybody because the Spurs (and Portland Trail Blazers) keep extending their own possessions with offensive rebounds.

Yes, O’Neal’s toe and now cut finger are nuisances. But they didn’t keep him from dominating when it mattered Sunday. I’m not ready to blame the loss on his reduced effectiveness. And neither is Jackson.

“I think we can play well enough with Shaq at the level that he’s playing at right now,” Jackson said. “It’s the rest of the team that has to step into the vacuum and provide some help.”

Right now, the only thing that hasn’t deserted the Lakers is their swagger.

Bryant greeted the media after the Game 2 defeat while wearing a pair of yellow Gucci sunglasses he must have found in Elton John’s glove box, and said: “The party’s just getting started. This is where the fun starts.”

Fisher said: “We’re confident in our ability to respond in these types of situations. It doesn’t mean we like to be in this type of situations. We just feel confident that we won’t panic and we won’t get down on ourselves.”

Right now they need a little less sense of entitlement, and a lot more title-type effort.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at: [email protected]