Lakers Can’t Seem to Win With Their Role Players

It was like saving all year to buy a ticket for the top Broadway show, only to get stuck watching the understudies.

The Toronto Raptors play the Lakers at Staples Center once a season, meaning the folks in L.A. have only one chance to see Kobe Bryant go head-to-head with Vince Carter, with a subplot of Shaquille O’Neal against Hakeem Olajuwon.

Friday night’s performance, an 89-86 Raptor victory, included moments of Jelani McCoy in O’Neal’s role, and Eric Montross briefly filling in for Carter, and ended with what Laker Coach Phil Jackson called “our comedy of errors.”

The strangest bit of recasting is the Lakers as a struggling team whose prospects of winning are in doubt every night, no matter the location or the opponent.

With O’Neal kicking up his ailing feet on the injured list and Bryant bothered by strained ribs, the Lakers are looking very mortal and the Chicago Bulls’ single-season record of 72 victories is looking very safe.

It’s actually a little fun to watch the Lakers have to use all their resources, instead of relying on O’Neal to bully teams. The fans at Staples Center cheer a little louder, as if recognizing the squad needs some extra help.

What they really could use is another 7-footer who weighs over 300 pounds and has the agility of a point guard. They’ve owned the paint ever since O’Neal came to town in 1996, but lately it’s available to the highest bidder on any given night.

Golden State outrebounded the Lakers, 57-36, in the previous game, and Toronto did whatever it wanted to inside Friday.

Even without Olajuwon (who had toe problems of his own), the Raptors’ combination of Antonio Davis and Keon Clark (who produced 30 points and 26 rebounds between them), with the usual dirty work by Jerome Williams, helped them win the points in the paint category, 40-32.

It looked like the Lakers were auditioning people for the role of low-post performer.

They tried to go to Samaki Walker. They went to Slava Medvedenko. And in a particularly calamitous stint, Jackson experimented with McCoy.

McCoy’s misadventures included two missed shots (one blocked), two turnovers and two missed free throws, and he probably won’t be seen again until April.

The Raptors attacked the basket like, uh, a certain prehistoric species going after the humans in “Jurassic Park.” They grew more patient as the game went on, passing up jump shots to go inside.

At the other end of the court, every Laker foray into the paint was a misadventure, bringing about turnovers or sending the ball crashing against various parts of the rim and backboard.

The only reason that any of this matters is that there’s no telling if O’Neal’s foot problems will act up in the playoffs, They’re chronic, not so much an injury as a “malady,” as Jackson called it. Although he’d probably play through anything short of paralysis in the playoffs, the Lakers might have to do without him again.

With the exception of their Christmas comeback victory against Philadelphia, they haven’t looked up to the task. This is a team (and coaching staff) that won’t fret too much about single losses, but whose pride kicks in whenever it faces potential losing streaks.

More than anything, Jackson was concerned that the Lakers haven’t played with consistent intensity throughout these games. They ebb and flow, and they don’t have that comfort margin anymore. They fall behind, mount rallies, but it’s asking too much to do that every night. They made it a tight game after the Raptors went ahead by 16 in the third. But they didn’t finish it in the fourth, when Bryant’s shooting faltered and Toronto grabbed some timely offensive rebounds.

“Couldn’t sustain the energy,” Jackson said.

They can’t even write this off as being undermanned.

The Raptors came through in the fourth quarter after losing Carter late in the third, when he hit the deck hard after a foul and strained his left shoulder. (The Lakers picked Montross to shoot the free throws, marking the only connection between the two outside of the North Carolina alumni directory.

The Lakers still had Bryant, who was finally unwrapped, if not fully unleashed. He went without the tape around his ribs for the first time since he hurt them a week earlier in Memphis.

The rib injury didn’t keep Bryant from dunking against Golden State.

“I jump so high, I don’t have to stretch it out,” Bryant joked. “I just drop it in.”

In real life, we’ve seen Carter dunk with his elbow hanging on the rim and his forearm in the net. That’s one reason I’d put money on Carter if the two former slam-dunk champions ever re-entered the contest together.

But Bryant is the more complete player. He plays better defense and for the past 10 months has done a better job of involving his teammates.

Without O’Neal, Bryant had even taken to serving as the focal point of the Laker offense from the post, just as O’Neal did.

He said he did it for two reasons. First, it saves strain on his ribs by not having to drive to the hoop.

“The second is to give us a familiar look, even though I’m not 7-3, 3

He can’t draw the same amount of defensive attention and create open shots for teammates as O’Neal can. But the triangle offense always worked well enough in Chicago with Michael Jordan in the post. Other players had their opportunities Friday, but aside from Devean George (17 points on seven-for-eight shooting), they couldn’t make enough good things happen. Rick Fox (14 points) had a few shots go in and out.

Toronto was just a little guttier.

“When your best player goes down and you can get a win on the road, it builds everybody’s confidence,” Coach Lenny Wilkens said.

Jackson knows that’s true, he just can’t say the same for his team yet.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com