Lakers taking on water fast

It only looked as if the sky were falling.

Then the Lakers made it official.

Rainwater dropped unexpectedly onto the Staples Center court during the first quarter, and the Lakers extended the metaphor with a late-game collapse, a mass of indecision that ended with a futile game of hot potato before fans filtered out slowly, equal parts chagrin and silence trailing them.

The Lakers picked the worst time to be bashful, failing to even muster a shot in the final nine seconds of a 98-95 loss Sunday to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Luke Walton passed rather than attempt a three-pointer with about two seconds left, and the Lakers were left with a third consecutive loss. They are now 2-4 since Andrew Bynum suffered his knee injury, with a home game Tuesday against New York before a nine-game, 8,713-mile trek that marks their longest continuous trip since they moved from Minneapolis in 1960.

On a positive note for them, they actually outscored a team in the third quarter, but then the fourth quarter turned against them, a nine-point lead dissipating amid a steady stream of missed shots -- and those that were not taken.

The Lakers trailed by three in the final seconds when Lamar Odom inbounded the ball to Ronny Turiaf, who got the ball to Walton near the three-point line, who passed it over to Kobe Bryant, who sent it back to Walton for what would have been a three-point shot.

But Walton passed back to Bryant, who was a few feet behind the three-point line. It was too late for him to get off a shot.

The consensus: Walton should have taken the shot.

“He has to,” Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said. “He’s the open guy.”

Afterward, as the heaviness of the loss engulfed the Lakers’ locker room, Walton dressed excruciatingly slowly with his back to a semicircle of reporters around his locker. Then he turned and spoke.

“When I caught the ball to go up and shoot, I kind of fumbled it a little bit and I had LeBron [James] running at me,” Walton said. “I didn’t think I had a clear look. I saw Kobe was open for a pass, and then I realized as soon as I passed it to him it was a mistake. In hindsight, I should have definitely just caught it, put something up, at least give us a chance, you know?”

James kept his team in the game with 41 points on 16-for-32 shooting as the Cavaliers beat the Lakers for a fifth consecutive time.

His presence was felt in the end with a 22-footer over Bryant with 20.1 seconds left and two free throws with nine seconds to go.

Bryant made eight of his first nine shots but faded in the fourth quarter, making one of seven shots and finishing with 33 points on 10-for-21 shooting.

The Lakers’ forwards were again contributing factors to the loss. Odom scored eight of the Lakers’ first 16 points but finished with only 14. Walton had nine points.

Both were on Jackson’s radar before the game. “We have two forwards that I don’t think have made a shot,” he said. “I’m trying to remember the last time either one of them made a shot [from outside].”

It didn’t get better for Walton.

“I told him to just keep going, just stay aggressive,” Bryant said. “You don’t want him to lose confidence, to feel like we lose trust in him.”

The game lost some of its early continuity after a 12-minute delay because water began dripping onto the court behind the basket by the Lakers’ bench. The cause, a Staples Center official said, was wet clothing left behind on a catwalk near the ceiling by a team of workers who had inspected leaks in the roof.

“They gave me some cockamamie story,” Jackson said. “That was a good one.”

Still, the Lakers had their chances to slog through the game and salvage it. They led, 84-75, before Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ jumper began Cleveland’s comeback with 7:50 to play.

With 13.4 seconds left and the Lakers down, 96-95, Cavaliers guard Damon Jones fell on an inbounds pass from Larry Hughes, and Walton scooped up the loose ball and fed it to Bryant. But Bryant missed a layup and then lost control of the rebound as he fell backward. Hughes ended up with the ball.

In the end, the most symbolic ovation from Lakers fans might have been the one with 8:14 left in the first quarter.

It was a simple show of appreciation, really, as Bynum walked to the bench in street clothes, the obvious sign of the season’s future as the present got a little murkier.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Showdown

In a battle of the top two scorers in the NBA, Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 33 points, but LeBron James, above, and his game-high 41 points powered Cleveland to victory. How each fared in the game and their season averages before Sunday:

*--* JAMES BRYANT 41 Points 33 16-32 FGM-FGA 10-21 8-12 FTM-FTA 13-18 1-5 3-PT M-A 0-1 9 Rebounds 12 4 Assists 6 2 Steals 0 5 Turnovers 3 29.6 Points per game 27.7 7.6 Rebounds per game 6.0 7.4 Assists per game 5.1 *--*