Bryant, Losing Are Only Laker Options

There was Kobe Bryant and not much else for the Lakers, a familiar combination producing a familiar result.

The season is young, the pattern no longer so, as Bryant’s shot total again brushed up against the mid-30s and the Lakers again lost, 96-93, to the Chicago Bulls on Sunday night in Staples Center.

Bryant had 43 points on 17-for-34 shooting and missed two key shots in the final minute, unable to stop a late slide by the Lakers, who missed their final eight attempts.

Only a year ago, Laker owner Jerry Buss said he hoped to avoid becoming the Bulls, a franchise that tumbled rapidly after its six-championship drive finally came to an end. In the last three days, the Lakers have lost to the Clippers and Bulls, slipped to 4-6 and fallen four games behind the Clippers in the Pacific Division.

Bryant, who had taken 35 and 36 shots in the two games before Sunday’s, again took a large chunk of the team’s 78 attempts.

“We will have to find another alternative to 34 shots out of 78,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “That’s too high a percentage of shots for Kobe to take and the team to absorb. We have to do better than that.”

Before Saturday’s practice, Jackson raided the Laker film library and showed the team some footage of Michael Jordan in the 1991 NBA Finals -- Bulls in five, over the Lakers -- to demonstrate what should be happening when Bryant is double-teamed and how the spacing in the triangle offense has to improve.

The double teams again came, as did the litany of shots for Bryant amid the absence of a second option. Chris Mihm had 13 points and was the only other Laker in double figures. Lamar Odom did not take a shot in the first quarter and then stalled because of foul trouble, scoring six points in 30 minutes.

Bryant took 19 of the Lakers’ 44 shots in the first half. He took 15 of their 34 in the second half, making only six.

“I really don’t want to shoot the ball that many times,” Bryant said. “It’s important for other people to step up and make contributions.”

Bryant, however, failed in the end.

With the Lakers trailing, 94-93, Bryant air-balled a runner in the lane with 14.9 seconds left, into a double team of Luol Deng and Michael Sweetney.

“The whole team just collapsed over and I got hit on the arm on the way up,” Bryant said. “Those type of situations, you never get those calls.”

Chris Duhon made two free throws to provide a 96-93 Bull lead.

In the final seconds, Bryant’s three-point try bounced off the right side of the rim, Odom took the long rebound in the right corner, and his three-pointer at the buzzer glanced off the rim.

Jackson said beforehand that 90% of Bryant’s shots were “good, quality shots.”

After the game, Jackson said Bryant’s selection was again nine-out-of-10 acceptable, although the Laker coach spoke less favorably about shot selection in the end, some of which were Bryant’s.

“Choice of shots down the stretch, I thought we could have explored a little bit better,” he said.

Compounding the intensity of the Laker loss was the context of the Bulls’ victory during their so-called circus trip, where they get run out of United Center for the better part of two weeks to allow the circus to take over.

They had been 1-41 since 1999 on such trips. They are now 2-41.

The Laker defense was ineffectual in the clutch, allowing Duhon to hit two key three-pointers in the final minutes.

And, in another apparent rerun from last season, Odom ran into trouble with fouls and referees.

He drew his fourth foul with 9:39 left in the third quarter, then turned and appealed to the Laker coaching staff for help with the referees. He purposely rolled the ball away from the free-throw shooter, Andres Nocioni, and was called for delay of game.

He continued complaining as he lined up in the free-throw blocks and drew a technical foul. He was removed from the game by Jackson.

Odom, who played more at power forward than in previous games because of Kwame Brown’s hamstring injury, attempted only four shots and made two.