Lakers hit a patch of bad luck

The Lakers can’t stop limping, their frontcourt threadbare now that Vladimir Radmanovic is out eight weeks because of a separated right shoulder.

They have a grand total of four serviceable forwards, three if Ronny Turiaf is counted strictly as a backup center, which is really the case, leaving Lamar Odom, Brian Cook, Maurice Evans and -- anybody else?

This is not the way Coach Phil Jackson envisioned beginning the last two months of the regular season. He came back from his daughter’s wedding in Washington, D.C., to be drilled Tuesday by a series of questions about Radmanovic, who claimed he hurt his shoulder by slipping on a patch of ice while vacationing in Park City, Utah.

Jackson, when asked about it, paused seven seconds before invoking the name of an old private detective agency.

“After we get Pinkerton on the case, we’ll get back to you,” he said slowly. “We have to accept that story and go from there. We have to believe that our boys are being honest with us in this situation, right? It is a situation that’s a curiosity for sure.”

Lakers officials are privately livid that Radmanovic hurt himself during the All-Star break, although they’re taking his word that he wasn’t skiing or snowboarding. Radmanovic said he fell while stepping into the street after getting coffee Saturday afternoon with a friend.

“I had my hands in my pockets,” he said. “I didn’t have time to pull them out when I was falling down. I just fell on my shoulder. It’s terrible. We have a lot of injured players. For me, it feels like I’m letting the team down.”

Radmanovic has been a big disappointment, averaging only 6.9 points and 3.4 rebounds a game in the first season of a five-year, $30.2-million contract.

Compounding the problem is the lengthy list of the Lakers’ other injured big men.

First the sprained-ankle guys: Luke Walton could be out until next week and Kwame Brown is out until early March, at best. Odom is still not quite at full strength after coming back from a sprained knee, and Chris Mihm remains a longshot to return by the end of the regular season.

The Lakers probably will rotate different players in Radmanovic’s starting spot, be it Cook, Evans or even Sasha Vujacic, depending on matchups against a particular team.

All of it comes with Jackson facing a potential low point in his career: He has never lost six consecutive games in his 16 seasons as an NBA coach. The Lakers have lost five consecutive games and play Portland tonight at Staples Center.

“That’s something that we all have to take pride in as basketball players, try to stop this little losing streak we have going on,” Kobe Bryant said. “The All-Star break came at a perfect time. Hopefully everybody kind of rejuvenated themselves.”

Did they?

“Everybody looked a little bit darker, so I guess that’s a good thing,” Bryant said during one of the lighter moments of the day.

Meanwhile, there were no changes in the already minuscule possibility that the Lakers end up with New Jersey guard Jason Kidd by Thursday’s trade deadline.

Bryant again endorsed Kidd -- “He’s obviously a fantastic player, one of the top point guards in the history of the NBA,” he said -- and bristled slightly when asked one too many questions about him.

“How many times do you guys want me to say it?” Bryant said. “You want me to say it in Chinese? A name like Jason Kidd comes across the table, you have to look at it. You just absolutely have to.”

But numerous sources said the Lakers would not part with Bryant, Odom or Andrew Bynum, making a trade for Kidd highly unlikely.

There’s always Scottie Pippen, who declared last week he would like to come out of a three-year retirement. Pippen, who averaged only 5.9 points in 23 games with Chicago during the 2003-04 season, could be a short-term fix for the Lakers, with severe limitations.

“I think Scottie can still play,” Jackson said. “We wouldn’t think of him in a big role of a 35- to 40-minute man. He can help a team do some things. If Radmanovic is indeed going to fill out the term of his sentence, that’s the end of the season, basically. To get through and get into the playoffs, we might need some help.”

TONIGHT

vs. Portland, 7:30, FSN West

Site -- Staples Center.

Radio -- 570, 1330.

Records -- Lakers 30-24, Trail Blazers 23-32.

Record vs. Trail Blazers -- 0-1.

Update -- The Lakers lost to Portland, 101-90, in November, marking their fifth consecutive loss to the Trail Blazers in Portland.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com