Laker Manage to Miss It Up

By TIM KAWAKAMI

Jan. 31, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

HOUSTON — The Lakers missed the Super Bowl, and a whole lot of other things Sunday.

Layups and three-pointers, fadeaways, free throws, jump hooks and even one Shaquille O’Neal hammer dunk.

The miss list? Kobe Bryant missed his last four shots, the Lakers missed 15 of their 22 fourth-quarter field-goal tries, Glen Rice seemed to miss an entire half (only trying one field goal in 18 second-half minutes) and the Houston Rockets did not miss their chance.

“That was an embarrassing performance today by our basketball club,” Coach Phil Jackson said after the Lakers’ 89-83 defeat before 16,285 at the Compaq Center.

“We couldn’t shoot the ball any better than that or perform any better than that on a game like this. . . . I was very disappointed in our effort today.”

As the Lakers (34-10, after losing for the fifth time in eight games and now only a half-game ahead of Portland in the Pacific Division) knew well, they weren’t defeated by Charles Barkley, who is retired, or Hakeem Olajuwon, who has been limited by injury.

They were defeated by Cuttino Mobley, Bryce Drew and Steve Francis slicing through the Laker defense, and Kelvin Cato swatting O’Neal and throwing down his own power slams.

But, as the Lakers packed up and got ready for Tuesday’s game in San Antonio, there was no mystery about why it happened, only 55 missed Laker shots in 86 attempts, a 36% drought.

Bryant made only six of his 22 attempts, O’Neal made only 12 of his 27 (for a game-high 27 points), Rice made only one of seven and Derek Fisher missed all six of his tries.

Did it get frustrating?

“Yup--especially when you get pretty good looks at the basket,” said Bryant, who was three for 11 in the second half. “We were just shooting them, and just weren’t making them.

“People say sometimes that happens, you have nights like those. But I want to figure out why. They were some pretty good looks. They didn’t go down.”

Jackson said it wasn’t necessarily a case of the Lakers being too content to throw up outside jumpers.

The ball moved fairly well. The cutters cut, the shots were there. They failed to go in. The performance tied for the Lakers’ fourth-worst field-goal shooting effort of the season.

“I think they just got to the point where they couldn’t put anything in and then they started trying to screw the ball into the basket, you know?” Jackson said. “And you can’t do that.

“Then we took shots that weren’t good shots. Instead of taking an open shot, we tried to get closer and take a contested shot.”

Said O’Neal, who also had a game-high 19 rebounds: “We didn’t shoot them well. In and out, in and out. Probably just one of those days.”

O’Neal had his own frustrating series in the fourth quarter--first, Cato blocked an O’Neal jump hook with the Lakers ahead by a point, then, after another O’Neal miss, Cato blocked O’Neal’s dunk try to preserve the Rockets’ three-point lead with under four minutes left.

On the next Laker possession, O’Neal was called for an offensive foul when he tried to back Cato under the basket before putting up his shot.

The Rockets, who trailed the Lakers, 66-65, after three quarters, outscored the Lakers, 10-4, over the last 5:50. Previously, Houston had been 0-22 this season when trailing after three quarters.

“He just timed it real well,” O’Neal said of Cato. “And he’s known for his shot-blocking. . . . He got two.”

Said guard Ron Harper, who blamed himself for missing two free throws in the third quarter: “I can’t complain about guys shooting the basketball. If you’ve got a shot, shoot the basketball.

“It’s just that we didn’t have a very good ballgame.”

Meanwhile, Francis, Mobley and Drew continually beat the Laker defense with their penetration, either getting all the way to the basket or drawing defenders and finding open shooters on the perimeter.

Drew was pivotal in the third quarter, leading the Rockets back after a 15-0 Laker run had put the Lakers ahead, 54-47. Drew drove to the basket and made three quick field goals, and suddenly, Houston was ahead, 57-56.

“Drew . . . Bryce . . . whatever his name is . . . that kid who was out there--we never had control of him,” Jackson said.

“And with a six-point lead, to have him come into the ballgame and break us down three times and set it up for them to get back into the ballgame, that just wasn’t a very good effort on our part.”

Said Rice: “[Penetration] killed us. It’s going to be very important for us. . . . We can’t afford to let teams continue to keep penetrating, breaking us down and getting easy shots and dropping it off to guys and just popping jumpers on us.”

Camera Shy

The Lakers have lost their last four games on national television.

JAN. 14

at Indiana, 102-111

TNT

JAN. 22

Portland, 91-95

NBC

JAN. 24

at Utah, 101-105

(double overtime)

TBS