Unexpected ouster leaves Lakers in limbo

LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles Lakers, their bid for a third straight NBA title stopped in its tracks by Dallas, face an uncertain future with a raft of aging players and the retirement of coach Phil Jackson.

“It’s going to be a l-o-o-o-ng summer,” Los Angeles’ Ron Artest said Sunday after the Mavericks completed their four-game second-round sweep of the two-time defending NBA champions.

The summary dismissal marked not just an end to this season for the Lakers, but the end of an era.

Not only do they have to find a replacement for Jackson, who insists this time he’s retiring for good, but they need to bolster a bench whose weakness was exposed by Dallas and with nine of their players enjoying guaranteed contracts the Lakers have little money with which to revamp the roster.

One contender for the coaching job is current assistant Brian Shaw, a former Lakers player.

But it remains to be seen what talent he — or any other coach — will have at his disposal.

Superstar Kobe Bryant is the cornerstone of the team. But point guard Derek Fisher will be 37 next season and could be on his way out. The Lakers could also decide to break up their duo of seven-footers Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol.

Gasol spectacularly under-achieved in the playoffs, amid reports that he and Bryant were at odds off the court.

“It’s going to be a long flight home,” Gasol said after the final defeat of the season. “It’s been a long, tough season, too.”

While Gasol denied a rift with Bryant, he acknowledged that off-court distractions took a toll.

“Individually, I want to learn from it,” Gasol said after the final defeat in Dallas.

“Just look back and savor everything that’s been going on and try to handle it better. And just whatever goes on, on or off the court, just try to keep it that way and not let it affect anything that goes on the floor.”

Jackson, who led Chicago to six titles in the 1990s and the Lakers to a total of five, decided to forego retirement at the end of last season to pursue one more career three-peat.

Although the effort failed, he said he was sure the Lakers would regroup.

“We all know they always come back and get themselves back in the race,” Jackson said. “The Lakers are going to survive.”

While the pursuit of a third straight title was “exciting,” Jackson admitted that it also put a strain on the team, and it showed in several lackluster stretches in the regular season.

The Lakers seemed to come around after the All-Star break with a 17-1 surge, but won only six of their last 17 games of the campaign.

“I don’t know where we lost it, that drive, that bond we had in the past, that cohesive drive in order to overcome adversity,” forward Lamar Odom said.

“Obviously something wasn’t there. We couldn’t overcome a lot of things we usually overcome, a lot of things we used to overcome.”