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Shortly after watching UCLA play with the intensity of a sunbather on Sunday evening, I wandered over to USC’s press conference, where Nick Young sat beaming about his biggest win as a Trojan.

The sophomore forward was emphasizing the importance of playing hard and working as a team, two things I hear about as often as professors warning against procrastination and plagiarism.

I took the comments as my cue to check out, hoping the Bruins had more insightful observations about the game. After all, their lackadaisical effort explained the shocking loss much better than anything USC did all day.

Sure, the Trojans’ hard work helped them, but it would have been a moot point had UCLA not treated President’s Day weekend as a vacation from basketball.

“We were complacent in practice this week,” freshman guard Darren Collison said. “I think that hurts a little bit.”

It doesn’t take an advanced degree in sports psychology to understand how or why the Bruins had this attitude. They manhandled the same opponent by 21 points a month ago at Pauley Pavilion.

And that was when the Trojans’ second-leading scorer, Gabe Pruitt, wasn’t watching from the bench with a potentially season-ending knee injury.

“As a team we got complacent because we blew this team out the first time, and everybody thought we were going to do it again,” Collison said. “But now we learned a lesson that anybody can lose on any given night.”

It’s tough to learn that lesson from a crosstown rival whose season was taking a nosedive.

Heading into Sunday’s contest, the Trojans were mired in a three-game skid that included losses to Pac-10 cellar dwellers Arizona State and Washington State. Yes, the same Washington State team that only managed 30 points against the Bruins last week.

“When we came to play the way we should have, we had them down by 30 at one point (in the first meeting with USC),” sophomore point guard Jordan Farmar said. “But they did a good job. I can’t give them enough credit.”

His teammates and coach were more than willing to try though. Most Bruins offered diplomatic lip service to the Trojans’ inspired effort, even though all they needed to do was blame their own carelessness.

“First of all, you have to give USC credit. They had a great game plan,” Ben Howland said. I’ll credit the UCLA coach for stopping short of calling the Trojans a great team.

Without Pruitt, the Trojans are mediocre at best. Despite putting forth arguably their most determined performance of the year, a conference-leading squad like UCLA should have been able to handle it.

That’s why the focus afterward deserves to be on the Bruins’ blunders, and not some Trojan triumph.

Throughout the season, USC has lacked an interior presence. However, UCLA still got outscored in the paint by 14 points. Without Pruitt, the Trojans only possess one dynamic scorer in Young. Nevertheless, the Bruins still allowed five Trojan players to finish with double digits.

UCLA’s perimeter defense, usually smothering and alert, offered less resistance than an amusement park turnstile. A basic shoulder fake was enough for Trojan guards to beat the Bruins’ defense off the dribble, setting up easy layups and kick-outs for open 3-pointers.

Meanwhile, UCLA’s offense, normally efficient in the clutch, was about as fluid as a tortoise navigating a puddle of molasses.

Early on, when the Bruins needed some semblance of rhythm, they fumbled the ball in the lane. And when they needed big shots down the stretch, they waited until it was too late before finally making them.

“We don’t want to take anything away from them,” senior guard Cedric Bozeman said, echoing a common sentiment when asked whether Sunday’s outcome was more a result of the Bruins’ sloppy play or the Trojans’ impassioned performance.

“They did a great job. But we made mistakes here and there and little things hurt in big games.”

On Sunday, it was largely a matter of the Bruins hurting themselves. USC was just there to cash in and receive all of UCLA’s credit in the end.

E-mail Finley at afinley@media.ucla.edu if you work hard for a high credit rating.