Lakers’ Game Worth Booing

DENVER —  For long periods Wednesday night, Kobe Bryant looked as if he felt alone, in the middle of the largest crowd ever at Pepsi Center.

He hadn’t been booed like this perhaps since the All-Star game, Philadelphia, 2002, holding the MVP trophy above his head. The people here, almost obligated to do so after the buildup, booed Bryant when he touched the ball, when he checked in, when he sat down, when he toweled off. They cheered him when he missed, though.

“The same in every city,” Bryant said with a sigh, refusing to dignify the contempt by rating it with that in other towns. “Mixture.”

The Lakers lost again, by a lot again. The Denver Nuggets, playing with conviction and against neither Karl Malone nor Shaquille O’Neal, were 113-91 winners. They had 23 more rebounds, 28 more points around the basket and 15 more second-chance points. The Lakers weren’t really competitive after the first quarter, and so lost their fourth consecutive game, the second time they’ve done so since Phil Jackson arrived going on five years ago. They also have lost six of their last seven games and eight of 11.

They played two games in two nights, trailed by as much as 23 points in both, and trudged home 21-11, Malone still a week away at best, O’Neal scheduled for an MRI on his calf today.

Horace Grant said he walked into the locker room afterward and scolded his teammates.

“I don’t say much,” he said he told them. “But we gave up. I’ve never played on a team that gave up.”

Four Nugget starters scored at least 16 points. Earl Boykins came off the bench and scored 22, in 21 minutes. Bryant scored 27 points and Gary Payton had 22. The Nuggets pushed the Lakers around, played to the crowd, threw alley-oops and, to standing ovations, laughed at the results.

Nugget Coach Jeff Bzdelik had gotten the notion that Bryant had predicted victory in Denver while leaving Minneapolis the night before, telling his team, “He guaranteed a win,” which Bryant most definitely did not. Still, there was hardly containing the delight of the Nuggets.

“Can you believe that?” rookie Carmelo Anthony asked in the hours leading to the game. “He guaranteed a win?”

The game was played as a backdrop, however, to Bryant’s return to Colorado as a player, rather than a defendant, for the first time since being charged with felony sexual assault five months ago in nearby Eagle County. Jackson said he canceled the team’s morning shoot-around at the arena, an exercise always followed by brief media availability, because of the potential for chaos.

“There’s no need to give a free shot at Kobe,” he said.

He said he spoke to the team “obliquely” about what the atmosphere at game time might be, though this is generally a team toughened by many Junes together.

Bryant was eight for 23 from the floor and had six steals and five turnovers. At times it appeared he had four teammates on his shoulders; Devean George missed all five of his shots, Slava Medvedenko fell into foul trouble in a hurry and played 18 minutes, all of them wispily, and Derek Fisher (four points in 23 minutes) again could not help.

“We got a lot of stuff done to us tonight,” Bryant said.

He stood afterward as he always does, in a crowd, answering questions about finding peace on the basketball court, when few believe he possibly could. He smiled at the silly questions, laughed at the ridiculous, including one that wondered if he’d spotted his lawyers in the crowd.

“I’ve been booed before,” he said. “I don’t pay attention to that. I’m playing basketball.”

This was a lost cause almost immediately, when the Nuggets rushed out with energy and the Lakers strained to keep up. Jackson pushed through the cameras afterward and announced, “I really don’t have the clarity of mind to speak anything that’s insightful or real clear about how I feel about this game.”

He tried anyway. He said he was disappointed by the effort, by the unwillingness of many of the Lakers to play with Bryant’s zeal.

“He gave his competitive best, I thought,” Jackson said. “He was animated and feisty out there. Those were the things we wanted him to do. We just wished the rest of the players could have stepped up to the same level.

“Well, I mean, he didn’t have a great basketball game. Kobe’s played some great games on this court. ... But, he was competitive, aggressive and tried to shoulder a little of it on his own. Maybe too much. Still, in all, that’s what he does.”

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No Defense for the Road

Wednesday’s loss to Denver marked the seventh consecutive game in which the Lakers have given up 100 or more points as the visiting team. Six of those games have been losses:

*--* Date Opponent Result Dec. 4 Dallas W, 114-103 Dec. 13 Portland L, 112-106 Dec. 23 Golden State L, 107-96 Jan. 2 Seattle L, 111-109 Jan. 4 Clippers L, 101-96 Jan. 6 Minnesota L, 106-90 Jan. 7 Denver L, 113-91

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