Brown could have pulled up for an ill-advised 3-pointer like Artest did in the third quarter and the Lakers trailing by 19. Jackson said before the game that better shot selection was at the top of his list of things to improve and Artest went out and shot 0-for-4 from deep, dipping his total to 3-for-23 for the series, and the team followed suit, going 4-for-22.

If you were to make a list of everything the Lakers have going for them right now versus everything the Thunder have as their advantage with the best-of-seven series now coming down to a best-of-three, the only three facets of the game L.A. can legitimately claim in its favor are size, experience and home-court advantage. Oklahoma City’s endless plusses read like a Rhodes Scholar’s résumé, as they hold the edge in athleticism, intensity, defensive prowess, fast-break buckets, rebounding and the all-important, yet immeasurable quality of confidence right now.

What good is size if the Lakers spent two days working on feeding the post and seemingly forgot how to defend? What good is experience if your team doesn’t seem as if it has learned any lessons through four games of the series? And what good is home-court advantage if the Thunder are so thoroughly outplaying the Lakers right now that a Game 7 at Staples Center seems only about as guaranteed as Artest’s actually making a 3-point shot.

“We’re playing good defense,” Jackson offered before the game as the one positive thing he could point to about his team. But the first Lakers player to speak in the locker room after the game, Andrew Bynum, opened his comments by saying, “We didn’t play any defense from the start.”

But in the past, they had a healthy Bryant as their safety belt, able to save them from the most grim of situations.

If the Lakers keep making the same mistakes and expect Bryant to bail them out when he just doesn’t have it in him like he used to, their season will go down in flames.

The best thing that cigar of Bryant’s can do is remind his teammates there’s always smoke before fire.

Dave McMenamin covers the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com.

Here is Kobe’s end statement, “Bryant said after the rout that he wasn’t sure what his team’s frame of mind would be moving forward, but he later added that he couldn’t have answered the same question last year on the way to winning his fourth NBA title with the Lakers.

“It happens. The playoffs, it’s tough,” Bryant said. “You go through games where you play extremely well and then you get busted up pretty well, and then you’re on to the next one. It’s such an up and down thing, especially when you’re playing against great competition. It’s just part of the playoffs.”

From Jeff Latzke, AP reporter interview