HOUSTON — If you were baffled by what happened to the Lakers in Game 4, this should leave you troubled.

If you were concerned about their recent unsteady play, this should leave you disturbed.
If you were convinced they were heading to the NBA Finals, this should leave you doubting.
A heartbeat was detected this time and even displayed. But it wasn’t enough on a night when the Lakers proved again that the other guys have hearts, too, and this isn’t a good time of the year to be skipping beats.
For the second consecutive game in this building, the Lakers fell behind the Houston Rockets big early and never had a lead.
The difference Thursday was they then competed, fighting back to within a basket in the third quarter before losing anyway, 95-80.
As alarming as that limp Game 4 effort here was, what just happened to the Lakers is even more jarring.
They didn’t punch back until it was too late Sunday. They started swinging soon enough this time and still couldn’t knock out an opponent that walked into the ring with its two biggest fists tied behind its back.
Keep in mind these struggles are occurring not only against a shorthanded team but still not even halfway through the playoffs. At the moment, mid-June seems like decades away for the Lakers, who picked a terrible time to suddenly fall flat.
Not that Phil Jackson is troubled, disturbed or doubting. At least not publicly.
“No, I’m not,” the coach said when asked if he was wary of the impending Game 7. “There’s nothing to worry about. It’s just a game and we’re on our home court.”
On the plus side for the Lakers, maybe the Nuggets aren’t as good as the Rockets. On the negative side, maybe everyone will find out first hand when Denver and Houston meet in the next round.
No, we don’t actually expect the Lakers to lose Sunday at Staples Center, but this bizarre series fittingly has lurched its way to one of the least likely and weirdly arriving Game 7s in NBA history.
Consider this fact: To avoid an embarrassing elimination against a team missing its two best players, the Lakers have to beat an opponent they defeated at home just three days ago by 40 points.
From winning by nearly six touchdowns to facing the final gun of their season? These are the Lakers at their schizo best. Or should that be worst?
You know in sports how people always talk about the concept of unfinished business? For the second time in a row here, it was an issue of unstarted business for the Lakers.
They quickly fell behind by as many as 18 points as Derek Fisher continued clanging his still broken jumper, Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza again showed their age and all of them permitted Houston’s Luis Scola to look like Dwight Howard.
“We had nothing...” Jackson said. “Nobody stepped up to score. We really never came back at them. We were set right back on our heels like in Game 4.”
Indeed, this one started out as another engaging documentary appearing only on ESPN. Call this one “Kobe Doin’ Nothing ... A Loss In The Life.” A Spike Lee disjoint, it was.
Bryant missed his first five shots as the Lakers missed their first eight, falling behind 17-1. Yes, 17-1 — a score so unusual that, before Thursday, it was thought to be possible only in Canadian football.
Bryant eventually converted a field goal at the 6:21 mark, allowing his weary teammates on the bench to finally sit down. The Lakers reserves traditionally stand until the team’s first basket.
Of course, on this night, with another sluggish start, two of those reserves already were in the game, Jackson doing more overt coaching than we’re accustomed to seeing. He even called a timeout at one point, trying to prevent another landslide.
Bryant left the court at halftime — his team down 52-36 — disgusted and explaining something in an animated way to teammate Sasha Vujacic. When he returned to the court for the third quarter, he went directly to the bench, rather than loosening up by shooting.
In that third quarter, the Lakers defended their back to 54-52, but two turnovers and a quick Rockets burst allowed Houston to withstand the best punch of the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed.
It does make sense that the Rockets would be tough to put away. Among other setbacks this season, one of them, Carl Landry, survived a gunshot wound.
Now they’ve lasted until a second-round Game 7 ... at least.
If you were wondering about the possibility of a Lakers title before, you should worrying about it now.
“I’m looking forward to Sunday’s game,” Jackson said. “It’s the next one, why not?”
Why not? Because the Lakers will win and move on into a series that could expose them even more.