All is not lost for Lakers

PHOENIX —  Without Lamar Odom and Luke Walton, the Lakers went into the den of the league’s second-best team, gave up 135 points and lost by 30.

That’s what was supposed to happen, anyway.

In reality, they played a pretty good game against the Phoenix Suns and found themselves down by only three points in the final minutes before finally fading, 99-94, Sunday at US Airways Center.

Their effort could be called laudable even though they lost, making them 0-1 since Odom was shelved because of a torn labrum in his left shoulder, an injury that probably will cost him several weeks. His visit today with a shoulder specialist is expected to crystallize how long he will be out.

At any rate, the Lakers had a better time than their last visit here -- a 121-90 drubbing in last season’s playoffs, the worst Game 7 loss in team history.

Some of the same ingredients were there Sunday, including a slow-the-ball pace that almost lulled the Suns into submission, but the Lakers couldn’t quite get by with Kobe Bryant scoring 31 points, Brian Cook collecting 22 points and 14 rebounds, and nobody else scoring more than eight points.

Things could have been better for the Lakers, but they also could have been worse.

“Coming in here against Phoenix, a lot of people probably thought they were just going to blow us out,” Bryant said. “We gave ourselves an opportunity. Outside of a couple of mental lapses, the ballgame was ours.”

It was Bryant’s layup after he posted up Raja Bell that brought the Lakers to within 93-90 with 2 minutes 46 seconds to play, but they could never quite catch the Suns in a fourth quarter that had a little of everything, including another on-the-bench incident between Coach Phil Jackson and a player.

Smush Parker, who had three points in 27 minutes and sometimes had trouble staying in front of Steve Nash, was irritated when Jackson removed him with 5:40 left in the fourth quarter.

A bit later, Parker exchanged words with Jackson in front of the Lakers’ bench and was never re-inserted into the game. It wasn’t as intense as the Jackson-Cook standoff last month that stemmed from Cook’s dropping his warmup sweats in Jackson’s lap, but it was one of the last things the Lakers needed while playing without their starting forwards.

Shammond Williams finished in place of Parker, who sat sullenly at the end of the bench during timeouts and received a rare postgame personal visit from Jackson.

“I just felt he wasn’t aggressive enough out there,” Jackson said. “I usually don’t iron things out like that after the game. He had kind of just gotten [flat].”

Parker, who encountered a host of problems against Nash and the Suns in their first-round playoff series last season, left without talking to reporters.

When the Lakers weren’t pouting, they were playing surprisingly inspired defense.

The Suns were averaging a league-best 110.7 points a game before Sunday, but found themselves locked in a 46-46 tie at halftime. No matter what the Suns did -- they pulled away slightly in the third quarter and eventually took a 10-point lead midway through the fourth -- they never could completely shake free of the Lakers.

Nash had 23 points and 10 assists but made only nine of 21 shots. Shawn Marion had 13 points on six-for-15 shooting.

“We did a pretty good job defensively,” Bryant said. “I think we could be proud of that.”

Before the Lakers continue their four-game trip Tuesday in Minnesota, there will be important visits to doctors’ offices in Los Angeles, as Odom and Walton go today for second opinions with specialists. Sunday marked the 17th game Walton had sat out because of a sprained right ankle.

“We just have to unite,” Bryant said. “That’s the key. Hopefully we’ll get Luke back and that’ll help out a lot because of his triangle recognition.”

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Trying to get by

How the Lakers have fared this season without forward Lamar Odom (through Sunday):

* Record with Odom: 21-17

* Record without Odom: 12-10

* Points per game: 103.5

* Points per game without Odom: 107.1

--

The 10 losses without Odom:

*--* DATE OPPONENT RESULT Dec. 13 at Dallas L 110-101 Dec. 17 Washington L 147-141 Dec. 19 at Chicago L 94-89 Dec. 25 at Miami L 101-85 Dec. 29 at Charlotte L 133-124 Jan. 9 at Memphis L 128-118 Jan. 10 at Houston L 102-77 Jan. 18 at Dallas L 114-95 Jan. 20 at New Orleans L 113-103 March 4 at Phoenix L 99-94

*--*

Source: NBA

Los Angeles Times