No All-Star Raves for These Lakers

NEW YORK — Oh, he’s been as frustrated.

“Junior year of high school,” Kobe Bryant said.

OK, so it’s not exactly another era, but you get the idea. Bryant was more convinced than ever Sunday that this is the most difficult time of his pro career, this four-game run that included the Lakers’ 101-89 matinee loss to the New York Knicks before 19,763 at Madison Square Garden and his four-of-15 shooting.

It’s tougher than being kept on the bench for long stretches last season as a rookie.

Tougher than the four airballs down the stretch in Game 5 of the playoffs at Utah.

Tougher than anything on the court since Lower Merion High of Pennsylvania was knocked out of the playoffs in 1995.

“I’m very, very upset at myself,” Bryant said.

He has made only 12 of 47 shots (25.5%) in the four games, although the Lakers won three of them before before a fourth-quarter disintegration Sunday ended that run. And he’s 51 of 132 (38.6%) in the 11 outings since his all-star appearance--as if maybe pressing to live up to the expectations that came with the weekend?

“That’s something I’m going to have to think about,” Bryant said.

Others have already started for him.

“You could speculate,” Coach Del Harris said. “But players go in cycles. He did get a lot of attention at the All-Star game. I suspect defenses are zeroing in on him. He may be trying a little too hard.”

Added point guard Derek Fisher: “I think if he would just slow down, things will come to him.”

If nothing else, this should temporarily take the Air out of all the next Michael Jordan talk that, in a twist, reached its zenith three weeks earlier at the very arena where Sunday afternoon Bryant couldn’t hit the broad side of a coronation.

And it’s not just the shooting. Bryant, after an impressive recovery in assist-to-turnover ratio that confirms his status as one of the most gifted ballhandlers and passers on the team, has 12 assists and 12 turnovers in the last five games. Anoint that.

“When you’re put in a situation like that, you just want to win so bad, you try to do too much,” he said.

“I’m going through a tough stretch right now. But it’s all a learning process. It’s exciting.”

The worst time of his NBA career is . . . exciting?

At least the process of trying to respond is: the countering of what defenses have done to slow him, the forced shots that have done a decent self-inflicted job of slowing him.

“I’m hating it,” he said, “but I’m loving it. It’s a big challenge. It’s the ultimate challenge for me.”

The thing is, he’s already faced it. Opponents had him scouted to death long ago and knew how to slow Bryant, even if it wasn’t always possible.

He apparently is just facing it in a different way now.

“It’s become more of a team effort,” he said of the defenses. “In the beginning of the year, if I would get past one guy, I was home free. Now, I get by and I have another one to worry about. Now, it’s becoming more of a chess game.”

Bryant made one of five shots in the fourth quarter of his return to the Garden. That hardly put him in unique company among the Lakers, who were a combined four for 12.

Still, they were in it until the final minutes, down only 89-87 with 2:40 left, even after three turnovers the previous five possessions. Even with Shaquille O’Neal being shut down by players whose only superiority over him should have been in length of service, Charles Oakley, Herb Williams and Terry Cummings having combined to hold O’Neal to six-of-16 shooting, 19 points and seven rebounds.

But the Knicks took off on a 12-2 run from there for the win. The ending included a three-point basket from Allan Houston--part of his game-high 32 points--and nine free throws.

The Lakers only points came on two free throws by Bryant.

In all, the Lakers were outscored, 33-18, in the fourth quarter. O’Neal had one point, zero rebounds, two turnovers and two fouls.

“He didn’t look for the ball that much in the fourth quarter,” Cummings said. “If they get tired of all the banging, they don’t want the ball anymore.”

Or maybe he couldn’t get the ball. The Lakers had 14 assists and 16 turnovers.

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Starting Off the Week Poorly

The Lakers lost Sunday, but that really shouldn’t be such a surprise. A look at their record each day of the week:

Sunday: 6-7 (.462)

Monday: 2-1 (.667)

Tuesday: 7-2 (.778)

Wednesday: 9-4 (.692)

Thursday: 2-0 (1.000)

Friday: 11-2 (.846)

Saturday: 2-1 (.667)

Total: 39-17 (.696)

RECORD BY DIVISION

The Atlantic Division has given the Lakers the most trouble this season:

Pacific: 9-6

Midwest: 18-1

Central: 8-3

Atlantic: 4-7