Lakers Missing Something

Phil Jackson had wondered aloud about opening defense of his three NBA championships here with six or seven losses, and everyone nodded and glanced at Shaquille O’Neal, still a toe shy of his whole game.

So sat Shaq in a casual black suit near the end of the bench while the Lakers went off for a while without him, first against the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night with an 87-82 defeat before the 77th consecutive sellout at Staples Center.

After they hung another banner and slid shiny rings onto their fingers, after the four guys standing beside each other, each in a T-shirt that read “PEAT,” sat down, the Lakers followed Kobe Bryant into a season they believe will separate themselves from nearly anything that has come before them.

That can’t die in a single game before Halloween, of course, but it didn’t soothe Jackson, who spent most of the night staring out to the floor, in a place somewhere between bemused and aghast.

“Hopefully, they get better from here on out,” he said. “It was not easy to digest.”

Expecting something a bit more precise, the Lakers made 31.8% of their field goals and fouled the Spurs 34 times. Bryant missed 20 of 29 shots -- six of seven in the final quarter -- and so scored a hollow 27 points.

The Spurs had scoring runs of 9-0 late in the third quarter and 7-0 early in the fourth, five players scored in double figures, and the Lakers lost their first season opener in 11 years.

“We know it’s going to be hard,” Bryant said. “Everybody knew that. [But] we made it harder on ourselves.”

As for his own game -- his 29 shots were nearly three times his closest teammate -- Bryant said he hadn’t meant it to go that way.

“This is no indication of the style I’m going to be playing,” he said. “That’s way too many. I shouldn’t be shooting that many times.”

That being said, he added, “We played hard. We just have to play better.”

The Spurs didn’t exactly dance off the floor, either. Tim Duncan, the reigning league MVP, scored 14 points on 14 shots, and the Spurs shot 36.6% from the floor. Still, it was plenty to finish the Lakers, who often looked ragged.

“Thrilled it’ll count as a win as the season goes on,” Spur Coach Gregg Popovich said. “Disappointed in our play.”

It’s how it’s going to look for a while for the Lakers, what with O’Neal at least four more games from being together again. Then, Rick Fox, who spent the summer getting slim and quicker, won’t be allowed to play until game seven, putting more pressure on an offense that already had lost countless easy baskets with O’Neal’s surgery.

As the national anthem was sung, Fox stood in the garage beneath Staples Center.

His BMW was blocked in by a rental truck, and he was late getting to Pete Sampras’ house to watch the game, but he didn’t really mind.

He’d stay, despite the league’s edict that he leave the building before game time.

Fox was suspended for the first six games of the season, the punishment for instigating the fight with Sacramento King guard Doug Christie on Friday. Devean George started in his place, in a front line of George, Robert Horry and Soumaila Samake.

Fox received his ring, slapped everybody’s hands, hugged Bryant, his jaw set, like always. Then, instead of pulling off his golden warmup and stepping to the floor, he left through a tunnel to a car whose engine was still warm.

“You know what, it’s different now, not being able to go play,” Fox said, clutching a box with the ring in it. “But it’s a good reminder. We got three of these for a reason, because we’re good at what we do.”

The valet never parked Fox’s car, just left it in the garage, and now security was rushing around, looking for the driver. Fox spread his arms helplessly, happy for the alibi.

“Hey, I tried to leave,” he said, smiling, “but I couldn’t. Hey, no rush ... “

Back on the floor, the Lakers began their quest for a fourth consecutive title by missing 16 of their first 22 field-goal attempts, which brought them a minute into the second quarter. Bryant, perhaps too eager to start quickly with O’Neal on the bench, missed eight of his first 11 shots.

The Lakers stayed close to the Spurs, who couldn’t shoot much, either. Duncan was three for 14. Tony Parker missed all 10 of his shots. But the Spurs shot 46 free throws (to the Lakers’ 30) and made 32.

“We’re going to have to play well and execute better and make less mistakes, keep teams off the free-throw line, if we expect to win,” Laker guard Brian Shaw said. “We already have enough against us with those guys being out, so we’re going to have to play pretty near perfect basketball in order to get these wins.”

There had been a huge roar for Fox, viewed by more than a few in the partisan crowd as heroic, both for his years as a Laker and his unyielding quest to pummel Christie.

During Randy Newman’s live version of “I Love L.A.” the Lakers milled around, hugged, and held one last time to a three-peat won in the strangest places, some of them in San Antonio, as it turned out.

And then it was over, the Lakers run off the floor like Newman’s piano, leaving them holding themselves together, waiting on O’Neal in particular.

“We’ll be fine,” O’Neal said.