Lakers Can’t Dodge Bulls

CHICAGO — At best, it was an unexpected turn of fate for the Lakers, who lost Wednesday to the team from which they’ve been trying to distance themselves.

The Lakers have contended for months that their flurry of off-season moves was necessary in order to avoid becoming the Chicago Bulls, a once-proud franchise that missed the playoffs the last six seasons and whose billboard slogan this season is “Through Thick and Thin.”

It was only one game, but it was a reminder of how thin this season could become for the Lakers after a 92-84 loss to the Bulls in front of 18,524 at the United Center.

Kobe Bryant scored 28 points on nine-of-21 shooting and took the blame after the game. In the fourth quarter, he took 10 of the Lakers’ 16 shots. He made four of them, was two of seven from three-point range, had three turnovers and no assists.

“I want my teammates to be relaxed and play freely,” Bryant said. “Let me take all the criticism and let me take all the pressure and responsibility for the losses. That’s what I want.”

Bryant said some of his teammates had asked him to pull the Lakers out of a 14-point deficit in the third quarter. His layup after a Chicago turnover gave the Lakers a 76-74 lead with 8 minutes 30 seconds left to play, but the edge was lost a minute later, never to be regained.

“They came to me and said, ‘You know what, you’ve got to get us going,’ ” Bryant said. “I responded and got us back to a two-point lead and we just weren’t able to close it out.”

The Bulls, 1-10 before Wednesday, had not played a home game in 17 days because the circus was making its annual appearance at the United Center. But the Bulls played as if they had been awaiting the Lakers’ arrival for weeks, taking just about every category, most notably offensive rebounds, 16-6.

“Offensive rebounds are a big factor in this game,” said Laker Coach Rudy Tomjanovich, who touched briefly on other areas of concern. “Our first half ... very non-aggressive, didn’t take the ball to the basket like you’ve got to take it against this team. Just trying to do things on the first option into the teeth of the defense. Their energy on the boards just wore us down.”

The Bulls, with five players scoring in double figures, were active, assertive, anything but askew as the Laker inside game disappeared. Center Chris Mihm had only five points. Forward Lamar Odom had seven points and 11 rebounds.

Tomjanovich, known for seeing the positive in almost any situation, wasn’t talkative after the game. He responded to three questions by saying he “didn’t want to get into” them, whether they were queries about the lack of an inside game or Bryant’s play in the fourth quarter.

Tomjanovich did allow that players who take games over walk a sometimes unfair line of criticism and adoration.

“If a guy can create shots or score, if the game turned out a different way, everybody would say, ‘Whoa, that was fantastic, way to take over the game,’ ” he said. “If you don’t do it, it’s like, ‘What was that all about?’ ”

Odom was plenty elaborate in describing what went wrong, providing a lengthy list.

“We didn’t get nothing going to the hole,” Odom said. “We established no post game today. We played an outside game tonight. I didn’t shoot the ball from the post tonight. We couldn’t use our height or our physicality at all. We couldn’t impose anything on them. It always looked lopsided.

“They attacked the hole. They took a lot more pull-up jump shots and layups. We had no energy inside tonight. We didn’t get the ball down there and establish any presence. It was not an inside-outside game. It was an outside-outside game. You do the percentages on that.”

Odom’s seven points came on three-for-six shooting.

“It’s my job to take some pressure off [Bryant] as far as making plays,” he said. “I wasn’t able to do that tonight. That won’t cut it. I’ve got to find a way to become a little more assertive.”