With LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh rolling into town on Christmas Day, the timing seems perfect for the Lakers to awaken from a mid-winter’s nap. After all, nobody does big moments better than the Lakers, right?
Except for this inconvenient truth: On Christmas Day, it is the Lakers who blink at the bright lights.
They have lost six of the past eight Christmas Day games, including last season’s debacle when a 102-87 thumping by Cleveland — and some unfortunate calls against the home team — prompted Lakers fans to shower the court with foam fingers that had been handed out.
So much for rising to the big occasion.
“Last year at Christmas we didn’t,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “The fingers rose to the big occasion last year.”
Jackson never lost with the Bulls, going 7-0 on Christmas Day games. So perhaps it’s simply an L.A. thing — just like an actor can’t get into his scene without finding his motivation, the same applies to the Lakers.
Consider the two games they won in that span.
• Two years ago, they were facing Boston for the first time since being annihilated in the clinching Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals. The Lakers managed a 92-83 victory at home.
• In 2007, the Lakers played host to Phoenix after Jack McCallum’s book on the Suns, “Seven Seconds Or Less,” revealed Phoenix players and coach taking shots at just about every Laker. Los Angeles won that one, 122-115.
The others — Kobe vs. Shaq, Kobe vs. LeBron, Shaq vs. Yao, Doug Christie vs. Rick Fox — have been greeted with a yawn.
Jackson made clear he does not like playing on Christmas.
“You know, it used to be two (games),” Jackson said. “Now, I see they have (five) on Christmas. It’s like Christian holidays don’t mean anything to them anymore. Just go out and play and entertain the TV (audience). It’s really weird. But it is what it is: We’ve got to go to work. We’ll do what we have to do and make the best of it.”
Jackson suggested that players, after opening gifts with their kids all morning and helping little Johnny hook up his new video game, have a hard time putting on their game faces.
Lamar Odom, asked how preparing for Christmas Day games is different after getting married last year (to Khloe Kardashian), sheepishly turned away.
“I don’t know how to answer that,” Odom said.
The Lakers were searching for answers to more meaningful questions Thursday — like how to get their mojo back.
After Tuesday’s humiliating loss to Milwaukee, in which Kobe Bryant was ejected, Jackson gave his players Wednesday off. The Lakers returned to practice Thursday with a renewed sense of commitment. Bryant, who rarely practices, did so. And Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol went through their first extended practice of the season together. In fact, Pau Gasol noted, it was the first time all season the entire team practiced.
Gasol was the only Laker who acknowledged this game might be worth a little something extra to the team. Most everyone else was low-keying it. No, there was not any added motivation after all the attention on Miami. No, there were no messages to be sent.
“Every game we win is important,” Ron Artest said after the loss to Milwaukee. “So if we win on Saturday, I doubt you’ll see any champagne-popping.”
