NEW FACES, OLD WOUNDS EVEN WITH A CAST OF STARS, LAKERS STRUGGLING TO READ FROM SAME SCRIPT.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

EL SEGUNDO - It was nearly 10:30 p.m. in Memphis, on a night that had exposed the Lakers to be as vulnerable, as flawed and as disconnected as they ever have been. The visitors' locker room was empty, save for two burdened old souls, sitting in one corner, a few feet apart.

One was searching for explanations about his suddenly diminished role. The other was musing about how easy this all should be, if only everyone had the same agenda.

Gary Payton and Karl Malone came to embolden the Lakers, not to fix them. Six weeks into the Great Experiment that conjoined them with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, they must be wondering where the ``Fab'' part of this ``Fab Four'' arrangement went.

They were exposed prematurely to the old Kobe-Shaq rift, which reopened just days before the season opener. They have played under the shadow of Bryant's ongoing legal battle. They are trying desperately to fit their unique and well-developed styles into coach Phil Jackson's structured system of play.

Seven games in, the results are uneven, and not nearly as impressive as the Lakers' 5-0 start suggested.

Their two successive losses have come by a combined 29 points, and the second defeat, a 105-95 rout by the neophyte Memphis Grizzlies, stung deepest because of the way it ended.

Bryant, as determined as ever to prove himself after knee and shoulder surgeries and a tumultuous offseason, tried too hard to rescue his team in the fourth quarter. His singlemindedness - shooting early in the shot clock, breaking from the offense, forcing a pair of 3-pointers after his legs clearly had weakened - instead helped sink the Lakers' comeback attempt.

Exasperated teammates simply stared, shook their heads and held their tongues.

By Tuesday afternoon, the mood had lightened considerably, and practice ended with Bryant bear-hugging Malone and laughing.

But the Lakers' fundamental problems have not changed. And their success this season might hinge not on how Payton and Malone adapt to their new surroundings but how Bryant adapts to his.

In various ways, his teammates have said as much, though they straddle a delicate line between constructive analysis and unwelcome criticism.

``We have to believe in each other,'' Malone said Tuesday. ``We can't get into, `I can do it myself.' ''

``I think Kobe realizes, as well as Shaq realizes, what they have on this team,'' Malone said. ``They should. And it should be easier on them. But sometimes, if you're used to saying `OK, I gotta do this, I gotta do this,' that's just a mentality you have. That's a competitive mentality that a lot of people don't have.''

For Bryant, that mentality is everything. He singlehandedly has saved the Lakers from dozens of losses over the past four years, and when their fate seemed bleakest last February, with O'Neal ailing and role players flailing, Bryant saved the season with a spectacular string of 40-point games.

That was then. The Lakers now famously boast a lineup with four presumptive Hall of Famers, and though Bryant might want to lead the way, Malone says it is unnecessary for him to dominate the game.

``Not this team,'' Malone said. ``Really, and truly. Not this team. Because I think you can make it easier on yourself, because you've got four guys that can do it. Or five. ... I think maybe in the past that was probably the case. For sure, when Shaq was out last year. But on this team here, I don't think you want to put that pressure on yourself, because you don't really have to.''

The killer mentality is among Bryant's gifts, but on a night when he's less than perfect, it can be the Lakers' greatest hindrance, as it was late Monday. Though there were countless other factors for the loss - 23 turnovers, porous defense, slow reaction to loose balls - but it was Bryant's 3-for-8 fourth quarter that caused the most grumbling.

Jackson addressed it during Tuesday's film session but tried not to dwell on it. Bryant, well aware of the static surrounding him, left without speaking to reporters.

``What we discuss in the locker room obviously has to stay in the locker room,'' Jackson said. ``But we try to address as a coaching staff what goes on in a game that hurts us. Kobe did take some 3-point shots that he's not ready to take at that point in the game. ... But the bottom fell out on us because of our defense.''

Though he generally frowns upon Bryant's gunslinging, Jackson said the Lakers also were guilty Monday of a stagnant offense, and poor reaction once Bryant launched.

``It doesn't mean it's just a one-and-out situation just because Kobe misses a shot,'' he said. ``We can still rebound, we can still operate, we can still play defense and get offensive opportunities from our defense.''

Of course, it was Jackson who opined some weeks ago that the reconstituted Lakers could become anything from 70-game winners to ``a team that could implode.'' Two weeks into this spectacular experiment, they have lived both realities.

Outside of the longstanding differences between Bryant and O'Neal, the Lakers are coping with a rotation that is among the league's oldest, and therefore, among the slowest, which accounts for those transition-defense problems.

Payton and Malone speak confidently about fitting into the triangle offense and accepting secondary roles, but they have struggled to adapt on the fly. Each has been benched late in games with the outcome undecided, and Payton was particularly miffed by his 13 1/2-minute benching Monday night.

So there is more to fix than Bryant's solitary tendencies, O'Neal's ghastly free-throw shooting and whether the two of them like each other.

O'Neal, more cautious now in commenting on Bryant's game, struck a positive chord Tuesday.

``Five games, we were perfect and we just let two slip away. That's going to happen,'' he said. ``But I see us being 8-2 out of 10 games. ... And we do that, we should have a pretty good record. We're going to be fine. I'm not really worried. We just have to find a way to make it easy for everybody.''

Probably, Bryant will have to make an adjustment or two along the way, but ``I don't want to fall in a trap of saying that's not going to happen,'' Jackson said. ``That's something that's going to happen. ...

``I want to run an organization, a team, that has the ability to differentiate between who's hot and who's not. Who has the advantage and who doesn't. And that's really the key,'' Jackson said. ``We want to go into Shaq if he's got advantage. We want to use Karl if he's doing the things that he can do and has done over his years. And Gary's the other player. And Devean (George) is playing very well for us right now.

``We're not trying to say that one person is going to captivate the game at the end of the game right now. We want to use advantage and read the defense. And that's really I think up to the players and up to my direction to kind of lead them in that way. And they're not going to find it the first road trip of the season. Hopefully, in December we'll start coming around and playing that way.''

Howard Beck, [phone]

howard.beck(at)dailynews.com

LAKERS vs. TORONTO

Tonight, 7:30, Staples Center 

TV/Radio: Fox Sports Net; 570-AM

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Photo:

(color) Even with Karl Malone joining forces with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, the Lakers are still going through some growing pains.

Edna T. Simpson/Special to the Daily News