Lakers’ Effort Is Lacking in Defeat

Maybe Nick Van Exel just buried his face in his left hand for a moment because the bright lights from a TV camera bothered him after he got poked in the eye in the second quarter. Maybe.

Or perhaps the team leader was showing the way again. It was, after all, how all the Lakers should have felt Sunday night, embarrassed after they not only lost to the Boston Celtics, 108-102, but had their four-game winning streak snapped because of poor effort.

But there was no place to hide. The Lakers had again been exposed before 17,505 at the Forum as a team that hasn’t learned from previous mistakes of playing down to the level of its competition, and worse.

They handled the Celtic defensive pressure, but could not handle the lack of pressure that comes with playing the Celtics.

“The bottom line is,” Coach Del Harris said, “the Celtics came in and had a better work ethic than we did. They were more aggressive to the rebound, more aggressive to the loose ball.

“The losses that hurt the most are the ones where you feel [other] teams wanted it more and exhibit that with more hustle.”

Like Sunday.

“They definitely outhustled us,” Eddie Jones said. “A loose ball is rolling around, their whole team is going for it. You see our team, we’re watching it.”

This was not as bad as it would have been to lose to the Clippers, as the Lakers almost did two days earlier before slipping past in overtime.

On the other hand, the Celtics, though improving at such a rate that they now have their 14th victory after winning 15 all last season, still only came in a .500 club. And one that had just lost by 15 in San Antonio.

But after entering the fourth quarter with an 80-80 tie, the Lakers trailed the rest of the way as Boston’s Antoine Walker scored 12 of his game-high 28 points--which came along with a game-high 13 rebounds--in the final quarter.

The Lakers were in striking distance at 104-101, and took a timeout with 35 seconds left to prepare for a final charge, but the possession, and their hopes for another escape, ended when Van Exel lost his footing near the lane while driving to the basket.

“Just slipped,” Van Exel said. “Slipped and lost the ball.”

It was impossible not to notice that the Lakers were going from a game in which they committed a season-low 10 turnovers against the Clippers--all the more impressive because it came in an overtime contest--to one against the team that forces the most miscues in the league. Not just that, but the Celtic defense, at 22.6 per outing coming in, have forced at least 14 turnovers in every outing.

Their flurry of traps and presses squeezed 23 out of the Lakers in the first meeting, about a month earlier in Boston, which still stands as the season high for L.A. The disclaimer for the Lakers is that only eight of those came in the second half, a sign that they had adjusted nicely at intermission.

So by the time Sunday came around, the Lakers were really ready for it. And with Van Exel back atop the league in individual assist-to-turnover ratio, they were No. 4 among teams heading into the game, at 14.7.

“It’s nothing new,” Harris said of the Celtic attack. “It’s not like an invention of some sort. It’s just the frequency.”

The Lakers had 12 of their eventual 16 turnovers in the first half this time, but many of those could be blamed more on sloppy play than presses. This came as the Lakers also shot only 42.2% and got beat on the boards, helping Boston to a 50-44 lead at the break as Walter McCarty scored 15 points.

The counter from the Lakers was that Rick Fox had already scored 18 points against his former team. This was a more glamorous showing than the first game against the Celtics, highlighted as it was by spin moves for baskets, but hardly needed to make up for anything. His contribution to the Nov. 26 victory at the FleetCenter, after all, had been 18 points on eight-of-10 shooting.

Fox finished with a team-high 27, while making 10 of 19 attempts, and nine rebounds. Van Exel added 17 points and 10 assists to record four consecutive double-doubles for the first time in his career.