Lakers Struggle To Regain Form

In starting the season with an 11-0 record, the Los Angeles Lakers were frighteningly good, blowing out opponents while playing most of the time without All-Star center Shaquille O’Neal. The question now is: What happened?

Suddenly, the Lakers look like a team that’s not interested in basketball, especially after their recent slide that included losses to the Golden State Warriors and Philadelphia 76ers, dropping the Lakers into second place in the Pacific Division.

“Confidence,” was Kobe Bryant’s response, when asked what was wrong with the team. “We’re not playing like we’re the No. 1 team. There was a certain attitude when we had the winning streak going. A certain cockiness, like we can’t be beat. Now we’re coming out like we are anticipating a dogfight, instead of just putting teams away.”

The loss two weeks ago to Philadelphia was seen as an aberration. But Wednesday’s loss to the woeful Warriors was shocking, considering that Golden State players even detected the Lakers going through the motions.

“It didn’t seem like they wanted to be out there playing,” said Golden State center Erick Dampier.

The right stuff

Latrell Sprewell wanted out of Golden State. He was openly defiant and eventually attacked his coach.

Mitch Richmond’s desire to be traded is no less intense. Yet, while Sprewell exploded, Richmond has quietly continued to play hard and wait for the call that will allow him to escape Sacramento.

The All-Star guard credits long talks with his mother, Ernell O’Neal, for getting him to focus on his job. She told her son to wait, that a trade would come in God’s time, not his.

Slam-dunk contest shelved

Just in time for the All-Star Game’s return to New York on Feb. 8, the NBA has finally done away with the slam-dunk contest. The last few years the league was unable to lure many of the game’s top players.

Replacing the slam-dunk event during All-Star Saturday on Feb. 7 will be Two Ball, in which a WNBA player and an NBA player from the same city compete against other pairs. One takes turns shooting from different spots on the floor, while the other rebounds.

Underachieving Timberwolves

Break up the Timberwolves? Don’t be surprised if it starts soon.

It’s one thing to pay a young core of players millions in long-term deals if you can, and if you’re winning. But with nine losses in its last 11 games going into the weekend, Minnesota, even with $126 million man Kevin Garnett, has been one of the season’s most disappointing teams.

Stephon Marbury is shooting 35 percent during the slump, and since he is to begin contract negotiations next summer, look for Minnesota to move Tom Gugliotta, who is up for a new deal after this season, by the February trading deadline.

Garnett is starting to hear criticism for shying away from contact and shooting more fallaways when he’s challenged. Denver beat the Timberwolves by having rookie Danny Fortson bully Garnett.

Coach Flip Saunders singled out the big Garnett-Marbury-Gugliotta three, saying, “I can get 12 guys from the CBA who’ll play harder than we’ve played.”

On the courts

Glen Rice scored 32 points and David Wesley hit a decisive 3-pointer in the final 2 minutes Saturday night as the visiting Charlotte Hornets ended Cleveland’s 10-game winning streak with an 85-84 victory over the Cavaliers.

At East Rutherford, N.J., rookie Keith Van Horn scored 21 of his season-high 30 points in the first half as the New Jersey Nets routed the Denver Nuggets 133-95.