INDIANAPOLIS — After the Lakers blew a 16-point lead in the final 10:21, a nine-point lead in the final 4:47 and a one-point lead on Troy Murphy's tip-in as time expired, Phil Jackson was succinct with his talented team.

"It's your fault," Jackson said. "You deserved to lose."

The Lakers did lose, 118-117, to a previously 6-10 Indiana Pacers team Tuesday night, halting their seven-game winning streak. There was no doubt even after the tip-in that Jackson called "fortuitous" bounced five times off the rim and Indiana's way that the Lakers have the far better team.

The Pacers won only because they hustled after it and believed they could win while the Lakers assumed they would win.

"To see our players rewarded for their hard work makes me feel great," Pacers coach Jim O'Brien said.

Let it be a lesson to many Lakers:

Trevor Ariza, for letting up just once in his dogged pursuit of Danny Granger, giving Granger room to hit a 3-pointer with 1:42 to play, and combining with fellow small forward Vladimir Radmanovic to commit eight of the Lakers' 16 turnovers.

Pau Gasol, for settling for a 17-foot jumper early in the shot clock with 1:28 left (the shot was way short) when he had badly bruised ribs that necessitated postgame pain medication.

Kobe Bryant, for setting a tone that the Lakers could focus on offense over defense from the start.

Then there was Jordan Farmar, who even though he played just 13 minutes somehow managed to win the game and then let it get away.

This was all set to be a spring-forward passage in Farmar's book of becoming an elite NBA point guard. Instead, it showed he's not even halfway through writing it.

Bryant put the game in Farmar's hands with pep-talk conversation that Bryant stopped to have while heading to the bench for a rest late in the third quarter. Cocksure he shares the same determination as Bryant, Farmar responded brilliantly.

He was the conductor of a 17-0 Lakers run to end the period that had Bryant up off the bench and transformed into a towel-waving Ronny Turiaf.

There had been a lull in the game as Bryant exited — Granger had just crashed into Ariza for a flagrant foul, leaving both teams a bit unsteady — and the littlest guy on the court grabbed the rope and pulled hard enough to move everyone. Farmar was playing harder than anyone — a noticeable change in a game the Pacers had clearly wanted more.

After a cute bank shot from 7 feet out, Farmar went behind his back and between two Pacers with a pass for Andrew Bynum's dunk — and Bryant roared from the side: "That's what I'm talkin' about!"

After Farmar's penetration caused four of the five Pacers to sink into the paint (one Pacer stayed on the right wing), Farmar perfectly reversed the ball to the open left side for Sasha Vujacic's 3-pointer — and Bryant ran off the bench at the ensuing timeout with a celebratory body check for Farmar.

Farmar had done it when the Lakers had four reserves on the court to Indiana's four starters, making a statement to everyone — especially Jackson, who fears the second unit can't function as well without home-crowd support.

The third quarter ended, Farmar sat there with Bynum and happily reviewed their great passing play, and obviously all the Lakers thought they had won their eighth consecutive game. Except the game wasn't over.

Farmar went back out there for the start of the fourth quarter, as he always does with the second unit, and his fire was out. He missed a jumper. He traveled. He missed a layup. He threw an errant pass.

Three minutes into the fourth quarter, the Lakers' lead had shrunk from 15 points to eight. The youth that Jackson fears will manifest itself with immaturity when games aren't close had turned a blowout into a tight game ... one that the starters couldn't win, either.

About that sloppy stretch early in the fourth quarter, Jackson said later: "You can't do that on the road. It gives momentum to the home team."

Even before the Lakers lost, Farmar understood it fully. He threw a towel, cursed and kicked the towel just before he sat down on the bench for good.

"Sometimes it goes like that," Bryant said. "You've just got to learn from that and keep on getting better."