ESPN

When the Los Angeles Lakers assembled their roster last summer, they envisioned the dreamlike starting backcourt of Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash leading the team into playoff battles.

But as has been the case for most of the season, the Lakers' dream became a nightmare: Due to a rash of injuries to their rotational guards, Darius Morris and Andrew Goudelock were forced to start a playoff game against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night.

Except the duo's play wasn’t the issue in Game 3. The two combined for 44 points on 17-of-32 shooting, which is better than some of the nights Bryant and Nash have had as a duo.

The issue was the defensive end of the floor, as the Lakers allowed the Spurs to score 120 points on 61.2 percent shooting. The Spurs had more turnovers (14 to 13) and less made free throws (11 to 15), yet they still won by 31 points, making for the worst home loss in Lakers playoff history.

While the Lakers certainly had every excuse to lose considering the personnel they were playing, it was disconcerting to see how little effort they put into their defensive execution, especially in their transition defense.

In the beginning of the fourth quarter, Pau Gasol threw up a wild shot out of a double-team on the left block and, thinking he was fouled, yelled out in frustration and stopped to stare at the nearest referee.

Meanwhile, Manu Ginobili grabbed the rebound and ignited a fast break as Tim Duncan raced downcourt, easily outpacing both Gasol and Dwight Howard, who had also decided to jog back.

One of the keys of transition defense -- which no Laker did -- is stopping the ball, as all five guys turned their backs to Ginobili, who had time to wind up and throw a three-quarters court pass to a wide-open Duncan in the paint.

Chris Duhon, the only Laker who hustled back, had no choice but to foul Duncan, and only then did Gasol and Howard finally get into the fray. Duncan, who’s 37 years old and had played just as many minutes as either Laker big men at the time, made both free throws, extending the Spurs’ lead to 90-67 with 10:41 remaining.

Even when trailing by over 20 points and trying to make a late-game comeback, the Lakers haven’t had the determination to play consistent defense.

Despite misconception, the Spurs aren’t a potent transition team, ranking just 13th in fast-break points and 17th in transition points per possession, but the Lakers allowed them to score 19 fast-break points, which would rank second in the league throughout the season.

By virtually every conceivable category, the Lakers are a below-average defensive team. The Spurs have taken advantage of that all series, using well-timed offensive flurries to turn a one- or two-possession game into a double-digit deficit.

Against an offensive juggernaut like San Antonio that has more depth and talent than the Lakers, there’s almost no margin for error, as Game 3 showed. For the Lakers to have any chance at winning Game 4 on Sunday and extending the series for at least one more game, they’ll have to show a level of defensive coherence and effort that’s been missing all season.

Stats used in this post are from ESPN.com, NBA.com/Stats and MySynergySports.com.

After one of the most arduous and pitfall-filled seasons in Los Angeles Lakers history, if not in the entire history of the league, the guys in purple and gold find themselves in the postseason with a first-round series against the San Antonio Spurs.

L.A. has to feel good about itself, finishing the regular season 28-12 after bottoming out with a record eight games below .500 in late January. They were even better in April, going 7-1, including winning their last five in a row to secure the No. 7 seed and set up their date with the No. 2 Spurs.

However, during that final postseason push, Kobe Bryant went out with an Achilles tear in his left foot, requiring surgery that will sideline him for six to nine months.

Can the Bryant-less Lakers upset a Spurs team that finished with the second-best record in the West and third-best record in the entire league?

Here are 10 things to think about heading into the series to determine just how realistic a possibility that is.

1. San Antonio's home-court advantage

Even though the Spurs looked somewhat ripe for the picking, having gone 3-7 over their final 10 games of the regular season, remember that the series opens up at the AT&T Center, where they went 35-6 this season. Meanwhile, the Lakers were just 16-25 away from Staples Center. It will be a major challenge for L.A. to bring the series back home with a split after the first two games in San Antonio.

2. Hamstrings

Definitely the body part that could have the biggest impact on the series for both teams. Steve Nash plans to play in Game 1 after missing the Lakers' last eight games because of a bum right hamstring, hip and lower back. Manu Ginobili only played one game in April -- an uninspiring 12 minutes in the season finale -- because of his own right hamstring injury. If Ginobili is healthy, he could have a field day carving up the Lakers' perimeter defense that is missing Bryant and has a hobbled Metta World Peace out there still less than a month removed from knee surgery. If Nash is healthy, L.A. gets another elite shooter to help open up the floor so Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol have more room to operate down low.

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The group that the Los Angeles Lakers’ brass envisions lifting the Larry O’Brien trophy come June has only played five games for its head coach, has yet to play a meaningful game with its Hall of Fame point guard in the lineup and is hovering around .500 as December begins.

That’s the reality for the Lakers.

For the franchise that hangs 16 championship banners from its rafters and employs a payroll close to $100 million, nothing less than a title will be tolerated -- regardless of the reality.

“You can’t be one to make excuses,” Kobe Bryant told me this week.. “You have to figure out how we’re going to get there. Our destination is to win a championship and it’s to get there by any means necessary. So, whatever it is we have to solve, we just have to solve it."

The tight rope the Lakers are teetering on these days makes them have to master the delicate shift between taking care of today while still keeping in mind that the ultimate test is tomorrow.

It has created enormous pressure around every game the Lakers play. A solid win on the road against Dallas is forgotten after a letdown home loss to Indiana. The chart tracking L.A.’s championship stock this season already has more peaks and valleys than John Travolta’s career.

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Well, the Lakers have a new coach in place, but the Bernie Bickerstaff era will not yet go quietly into the night. Happily for those (like me) who enjoy pressers with a hilariously grumpy coach who doesn't hide any disdain for the comical situation he's been put in, Bickerstaff will remain the interim coach for this contest. And while life under Bickerstaff has been fruitful, his double-digit wins have come against the Warriors and Kings, mediocre teams missing several notable names (Andrew Bogut, Brandon Rush, DeMarcus Cousins). The Spurs are far more talented and their roster is fully loaded, which poses a threat to Staples Center's sudden party atmosphere.

For more insight on the Spurs, I conducted an IM conversation with Andrew McNeill from the True Hoop network's 48 Minutes of Hell blog. Below is the transcript.

Andy Kamenetzky: So far, the Spurs have remained, like the Terminator and cockroaches, impossible to kill. How are they making it happen this time around?

Andrew McNeill: A number of things. Good health (so far, fingers crossed). They've got a deep roster that has a number of players who can step up any night. Gary Neal had a career high in scoring against the Blazers on Saturday night, for example. Also, magic.

AK: Just like Gob in "Arrested Development," which reminds me of a brilliant Photoshop sight gag involving Tim Duncan! Speaking of The Big Fundamental, he's putting up some of his best numbers in recent years, and without much of an uptick in minutes. Could this be shaping into a memorable season for Timmy?

AM: It could. I believe pretty strongly his numbers are going to drop off soon, closer to those of last season, mainly because his minutes should drop. But his per-36 minute numbers never change because of Duncan's consistency (and the aforementioned magic). Some have suggested that instead of playing Duncan fewer minutes per game, Gregg Popovich should instead play Duncan heavier minutes and sit him out of more games completely. It's definitely more extreme, but the biggest problem against the Thunder last season was that Duncan couldn't play 40-plus minutes on defense. Once Duncan was out of the game, the Spurs lost their best interior defender.

AK: How do you expect San Antonio's front line to deal with Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard?

AM: There's no question the Spurs have had trouble with Andrew Bynum in the past, and now Howard. Amazingly, though, I think they're a little better equipped with Boris Diaw alongside Duncan. Matt Bonner and DeJuan Blair really struggle with bigger players, but Diaw uses his -- ahem -- frame well. The more minutes Duncan, Diaw and Tiago Splitter occupy at the two big positions, the better the Spurs will be. Pop has played Duncan and Splitter together some in this early season, which isn't something he's done a lot of the past two seasons. He'll never admit it, but it could be with the idea of playing them together against bigger front lines like the Lakers.

So the Lakers now have Mike D'Antoni. Are they really equipped to be playing his style of ball, outside of Steve Nash?

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For the past several seasons, the San Antonio Spurs have served as basketball's version of Jason Voorhees: They cannot be killed. Since about 2008, fans and media (I've been as guilty as anybody) have cited their long teeth, declining athleticism and rising competition as reasons to declare the end of an era. But the Spurs refused to fade into the sunset, having finished consecutive regular seasons with the West's best record. Yes, the ensuing postseasons were anti-climactic, but either way, the message was made clear: The Spurs are still formidable. The Lakers learned that lesson as well as any team last season, losing twice to San Antonio -- home and away, with and without Kobe Bryant -- by 20+ points.

But this off-season it appears the scales have been tilted towards Los Angeles. For some perspective on how the new-look Lakers appear from San Antonio, we talked via email with Tim Varner from the True Hoop network's 48 Minutes of Hell blog.

Land O' Lakers: What was the general reaction in the 48 Minutes of Hell-osphere when word broke that Howard was heading to the Lakers?

Timothy Varner: In general, we recognize that it puts the Spurs behind the Thunder and the Lakers in the West. Even worse, the Nuggets improved themselves as well. The Spurs could be fourth in the West.

LOL: But aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln . . .

TV: The worst part about the Howard trade is the Spurs' weaknesses along the front line. The Lakers not only improved themselves, they did so in a way that exploits one of San Antonio's roster deficiencies.

LOL: How much can someone like a (theoretically) improved Tiago Splitter help? And I guess this might actually keep DeJuan Blair in town.

TV: I don't think either player helps, unfortunately. Splitter does not do well against Howard, and Blair will be traded as soon as the Spurs find a good partner. He's an especially awful matchup against Howard and Gasol. Splitter, I should also note, is an expiring contract with good value whom San Antonio may not be able to afford next season. So, somewhat counter-intuitively, Howard could force the Spurs to move Splitter for a roster upgrade at another position.

LOL: On the plus side, nobody will mind if Boris Diaw packs those pounds back on. It might be necessary.

TV: True, but within the Spurs' offense, Diaw is more of a passer for the p-and-r than a post player. So even his re-signing tilts away from bolstering the frontcourt in the sense of matching bodies with bodies.

LOL: That's too bad, because there's always a 50/50 chance Diaw will be wearing a "bro" to begin the season. The weight might as well provide some utility.

TV: I suspect the Spurs understand they can't match Howard and Gasol, so they will look to beat the Lakers in other ways.

LOL: Run them off the court, I assume? Or pick-and-roll them to death? Last season, Manu Ginobli and especially Tony Parker dizzied the Lakers with multiple pick-and-roll sets, often within the same possession.

TV: That's right. Pace and p-and-r are better options for San Antonio than adding more (seemingly useless) bodies to the front court. Look at what the Spurs have done this off-season. They added Nado De Colo, re-signed Patty Mills (high pace point with range) re-signed Danny Green, and concentrated on the development of Kawhi Leonard and Cory Joseph. Those are all moves with San Antonio's offensive attack in mind, especially as it originates from the back court.

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I had looked forward to these three April games between the Lakers and Spurs with great anticipation. I thought they'd be an instructive gauge of the prospects of a deep playoff run for the Lakers. But the results so far have been anticlimactic. Two games with blowout scores in either direction. And both played without Kobe Bryant.

Tonight, however, might buck this disappointing trend. Kobe's set to hit the hardwood after a seven-game absence, putting both teams at full strength. A win for the Lakers creates even more space between them and the Clippers for the Pacific Division title. And despite apparent indifference toward the one-seed, I imagine the Spurs would enjoy the psychological advantage of two wins over L.A. should these teams meet in the postseason. Stakes are in play, and I expect to see both teams working hard for a win.

To preview this game, I had an IM conversation with Timothy Varner from the True Hoop network's 48 Minutes of Hell blog. Below is the transcript.

Timothy Varner: During our last chat, the subject was whether the Spurs could contain Andrew Bynum. I think we have to ask whether the Lakers can contain Tony Parker?

Andy Kamenetzky: I think the Lakers can do a better job. Obviously, Parker is an elite point guard and a handful for every team. But he can't be allowed to become such a devastating scorer and facilitator. 29 points is okay. 13 assists is okay. Both stats aren't. The Lakers need to do a better job forcing the ball out of Parker's hands. Hard traps, hedges and doubles to make him give up the rock, then defend him so it's harder to get the ball back. Also, Ramon Sessions must attack Parker and hopefully draw more fouls. Parker can't do much damage from the bench.

TV: That sounds like a good strategy, but my worry if I'm Mike Brown is the Spurs' offense does such an excellent job of moving the ball -- hard traps, hedges, and doubles might lead to open three pointers.

AK:Sure. That's the problem facing an opponent as talented and versatile offensively as the Spurs. Everyone will need to help and communicate. In the meantime, the Lakers' offense gains a new wrinkle with the return of Kobe. How do you expect the Spurs to defend 24?

TV: By committee—Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard, Manu Ginobili and Stephen Jackson. I'm curious whether Popovich gears his defense more toward Kobe or Bynum?

AK: Were I Pop, Bynum. Not just because Drew's been an exceptionally efficient scorer all season alongside Kobe, but he's also still vulnerable to getting taken out of a game mentally when struggling offensively. When that happens, Bynum's defense can suffer in turn, which hurts the Lakers as a whole. Plus, when you throw the kitchen sink at Drew, he's vulnerable to turning the ball over. And as you may have noticed Tuesday, transition D isn't the Lakers' strong suit.

Kobe sometimes gets caught up in individual battles, and having missed seven games, could work too hard trying to "prove" he's back. But overall, the Lakers live or die with Drew.

TV: I'm also curious what frontcourt the Spurs start. One could make a case for returning to Tiago Splitter, but he and Tim Duncan are not a great pair. Splitter's inability to shoot makes him a better match with Bonner or Diaw. I wouldn't be surprised to see Boris Diaw or Matt Bonner get the start, with Splitter subbing for Duncan.

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So last week's blowout of San Antonio showed the Lakers would dominate the Spurs in a seven-game series, right? They've got too much size! Who guards Andrew Bynum?

Or not. Tuesday at Staples, the Spurs returned the favor, waxing the Lakers on their home floor in a game functionally over by halftime. The Lakers had no answers defensively, giving up a hefty 63 points to San Antonio over an opening 24 minutes in which San Antonio shot 63 percent. (This meant no repeat of the 30-rebound game for Bynum. Can't work the glass when the other team doesn't miss.) The lone quarter in which the Spurs were held under 25 was the fourth, likely only because Gregg Popovich dug fairly deep into his bench.

Moral of the story: San Antonio is good, and if these teams meet in the postseason will be a very, very tough out. Obviously things change for L.A. with Kobe Bryant in the lineup, but the Spurs are the real deal. I don't know which Lakers fans thought otherwise, but just in case, San Antonio certainly proved the point.

Here are three takeaways...

1. Do not turn the ball over.

This isn't exactly a new problem, to say the least. L.A. gave up the rock 23 times against Denver Friday and still managed to win. Tonight ... not so much. They were plenty sloppy in the first quarter, with six turnovers creating six points for San Antonio. Fortunately for the Lakers, San Antonio was equally generous, with five turnovers of their own. Both teams deserved more punishment than they got. In the second quarter, however, the Spurs tightened up the ship while the Lakers, whether in some misplaced homage to Southern hospitality or an effort to add just a few more charitable donations to their tax return, just kept giving things away, whether off the dribble or through poorly executed post entry passes.

With 5:25 to play in the half, the game was tied at 41.

From there:

5:00 - Ramon Sessions blocked inside.

4:44 - Turnover (Matt Barnes).

4:08 - Turnover (Steve Blake).

3:05 - Turnover (Blake).

2:37 - Turnover (Pau Gasol).

2:16 - Turnover (Gasol).

Friday night, Denver wasn't able to make them pay. To say San Antonio took advantage is a mild understatement. Tim Duncan's 20-footer at the 1:59 mark gave the Spurs a 16-point lead.

Sixteen points in three minutes. Ballgame.

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It's been nearly a week since the Lakers put a very unexpected beatdown on the San Antonio Spurs at the AT&T Center without Kobe Bryant. Since then, the Lakers have ripped Mamba-free wins against Denver and Dallas, and are steadily jelling as a well-rounded team in ways not witnessed all season. Of course, this was also a game in which Andrew Bynum grabbed 30 rebounds and the Spurs' Big Three (Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker) combined for 27 points. In other words, more extreme circumstances than reliable outliers in terms of gauging how these teams match up in a series. The Spurs haven't been one of the NBA's best all season by accident. Assuming they play at full strength (always a question mark with Gregg Popovich), I expect a tighter sequel.

For some thoughts on Lakers-Spurs Part Deux, I had an IM conversation with Timothy Varner from the True Hoop network's 48 Minutes of Hell blog. Below is the transcript.

Andy Kamenetzky: What was the cause of the Spurs' collapse in the first meeting? From start to finish, they just laid an egg.

Timothy Varner: Those who think the Spurs are legitimate contenders always qualify their confidence by saying, "But they're not great against size." For the most part, I agree, although the Spurs did sweep Memphis this season. I suspect the first game was something of a tempest in a teapot. The Spurs should play better against the Lakers in the postseason. However, I will say this. DeJuan Blair is a major defensive liability. He might assume the unusual distinction of starting the majority of games this season, then find himself outside of the playoff rotation. The Spurs' best big-man rotations feature one of Tim Duncan, Tiago Splitter, or Boris Diaw with ... Matt Bonner. Odd, huh?

So is Bynum capable of playing that way for an entire series?

AK: "Thirty rebounds a night" capable? No. The kid's talented, but a joke's a joke. But dominating a series is absolutely realistic. And it's important Drew makes domination a goal. More than any player on the Lakers, Bynum dictates wins or losses. There was a three- to four-week stretch after the All-Star break when his effort and intensity fluctuated, particularly on defense, and the team suffered. Over the past few games, he's been focused, and the difference is as massive as his frame. Bynum's presence on the boards and in the lane makes or breaks the Lakers.

You mentioned Blair's defensive issues. On the season, the D has been merely acceptable for San Antonio. Given how the Lakers have evolved into a team with an increasingly prolific and varied scoring attack, do you picture S.A. able to slow them?

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Few expected the Mamba-less Lakers to destroy a Spurs team at full strength in their house last Wednesday. Are there any instructive takeaways from this surprising turn of events? Along with 710 ESPN host and sideline reporter Dave Shore, we discuss what's real and what's a mirage.

With today marking the first of three important games against San Antonio, it was only natural we'd get together with Dave McMenamin to break down the matchups. This episode was shot last Thursday, well before Kobe Bryant began missing games with his left shin issue, but the discussion still raised plenty of pertinent thoughts.

On several occasions, I've described this game as the start of a quasi-playoff series housed inside the regular season. Between today and April 20, the Lakers and Spurs play three times, which creates familiarity and tension while allowing coaches to make adjustments. If not a true postseason vibe, the atmosphere could be similar. In the meantime, these games could be very instructive towards gauging how far the Lakers might travel in the playoffs. The Spurs have quietly (is there any other way for this franchise?) established themselves as one of the NBA's best this season, and recently had an 11-game winning streak snapped by Gregg Popovich's decision to prioritize his star trio's health and energy ahead of the team's record.

Even with Kobe Bryant suited up, this game would represent a mighty challenge. Without him, the task becomes even more difficult, and the takeaways grow potentially fuzzier in the event of a loss. But should the purple and gold pull the upset or even keep the game close, that could equal the Lakers perhaps on more solid footing than the last few weeks might indicate. At the very least, maybe a strong rally as the postseason nears is possible.

For more insight into the Spurs, we sparked up an IM conversation with Andrew McNeill from the True Hoop network's 48 Minutes of Hell blog. Below is a transcript of the conversation.

Andy Kamenetzky: For Lakers fans who haven't seen much of San Antonio this season, why have they been so successful?

Andrew McNeill: The offense is elite. The Spurs are still a great 3-point shooting team, but they can score points in a variety of ways. Against the Jazz Sunday night, the Spurs shot 27% from 3, but still scored 114 points. And the defensive rebounding is bettee. They're still not a great defensive team, but limiting teams to just one shot makes them a little better.

AK: Why hasn't San Antonio been better defensively?

AM: The Spurs still struggle defending the pick-and-roll/pop. While the Spurs are a smart defensive team and rotate better than most, the lack of foot speed from the big man leaves them open to teams with bigs that can knock down 18-footers. However, the post defense has been improved for three reasons: (1) more minutes for Tiago Splitter, (2) the addition of Boris Diaw and (3) Matt Bonner... somehow.

I'm curious, with all the change both teams have undergone since last season, what matchup are you most interested in?

Brian Kamenetzky: With Ramon Sessions, the Lakers have the ability not just to run pick-and-roll effectively, but a guard that must be respected for his penetration and ability to finish at the rim. That means Tony Parker, who previously didn't have much of a role defensively against the Derek Fisher types the Lakers once relied on (namely Derek Fisher), now have real responsibility. The bigs not only have to help and recover, but try and force Sessions higher on the floor to slow his attack. With Gasol's ability to pass, the Lakers have lots of sets to expand P-and-R possibilities.

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Solid week for NBA big men nicknamed "Drew." Along with the Bucks' Drew Gooden in the East (who, ironically, has flourished filling in for the injured and eventually traded Andrew Bogut), Andrew Bynum was selected as the Western Conference Player of the week. Looking over the numbers over his last four games, it's not surprising he'd receive the honors: 27.5 points, good for second in the conference on the week. 14.8 rebounds, best in the West for the week. 66.5 percent from the field. Two blocks in three of the four contests played. 75 percent or higher at the stripe in three games. Big plays down the stretch of the double OT win in Memphis. Good stuff, indeed.

But even during this stretch of greatness -- at times, utter brilliance and dominance -- there were still flaws exposed. Namely, the propensity for turnovers. Drew averaged four per contest, and in Sunday's loss against Utah, he turned that ball over that many times in the first quarter alone. Largely, the issue is dealing with double and sometimes even triple teams, which Bynum now commands on a regular basis. At times, there's a terrific reaction, whether passing the ball out or timing a move to the basket for a score or a foul drawn. Others, especially when he's along the baseline, trouble (or a travel) ensues. This issue remains a work in progress for the young center, and in cases like yesterday's debacle, can lend a hand in creating a loss. On a team vulnerable to excessive and detrimental turnovers as it is, Bynum's learning curve can feel even more steep.

I don't mention this to rain on Drew's parade or accomplishments, but rather to illustrate how much he can -- and continues to -- grow. He's already been a very good player, when healthy, over the last few seasons. But in his first season as an All-Star, Drew is looking to take that step towards being a player universally regarded as elite. Mastering double teams is a step in need of taking, and he's moving in the right direction. As Mike Brown often likes to remind us, even Tim Duncan, who he coached during his early seasons in San Antonio, experienced the same struggles mastering the art of evading multiple defenders.

Does Bynum carry the same potential for excellence as The Big Fundamental (his idol, no less), regarded by many as the greatest power forward of all time? Obviously, that's a long way from being settled one way or the other. But at the very least, opponents are forcing Drew to answer the question by sending waves of defenders in his direction. They wouldn't bother if he wasn't doing something right.

In November, I wrote about how Kobe Bryant's never had a true rival over the course of his career. I'm not talking "Magic-Bird 2.0," but rather a universally acknowledged rival of any kind. There's nobody linked to Kobe, whether through meaningful head-to-head battles or a peer of his era. Of his contemporaries, the closest would be Tim Duncan, but such different players make a comparison feel inorganic. (Plus, their playoff battles lacked animosity.) Shaquille O'Neal was, technically speaking, a rival, but for all the wrong reasons. Factor in how no contemporary beyond Duncan or Shaq (who are, in fact, constantly compared) have come close to matching his career accomplishments, and trying to name Kobe's rival really becomes an exercise in futility.

Ask Metta World Peace, as a few reporters did after the Minnesota win, and he'll echo these sentiments. However, had the stars and planets aligned just right, he thinks Kobe might have experienced the sizzle of a true rival.

"I think I'm really the last person to go at Kobe (With the Houston Rockets during the 2009 Western Conference semi-finals) and I'm (now) on Kobe's team," said MWP Wednesday night. "Nobody else will. If I was playing against Kobe, I would welcome (a rivalry), but some people's scared.

"We had our shot. We had Yao Ming. That could have been a potential rival. If we had Yao Ming and Tracy (McGrady) would have been healthy and worked hard, and Dikembe Mutombo. That would have been a rivalry. We would have been Lakers and the Houston Rockets for the next couple years. We would have ran the table winning championship back and forth. But Yao broke his foot in Game 3, turned everything around. But if somebody wants to be a rival of Kobe's, he welcomes it. Just talk up and he would welcome it."

James Harden might disagree with MWP labeling himself the last of a breed willing to tangle with 24, and I've always maintained that series lasted seven games primarily because of the Lakers' uneven focus (and a horribly coached Game 4 by Phil Jackson) rather than two teams emerging a surprisingly even match. But MWP's larger point is nonetheless thought-provoking. With more time together with everyone healthy (and in the case of T-Mac, motivated), perhaps those Rox could have shared the Lakers' stage over the last five or so seasons. They always managed to create a sum greater than the individual parts, and heart was never an issue. Remember, in the 2008 season before MWP's arrival, McGrady led the Rockets on a 22-game winning streak mostly without the services of Yao, who missed the final 24 games of the season. Imagine the long term potential with Yao at full strength.

Or, for that matter, MWP arriving in Houston a season earlier.

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Phil Jackson used to reference Red Holzman all the time, and Mike Brown does the same with San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, whose staff he served on from 2000-2003 and who is clearly a major influence.

Still, if there's one place Brown hasn't been able to emulate his former boss, it's in managing minutes. In Portland on Tuesday night, Popovich essentially threw the game, and a streak of 11 wins with it, electing to sit Tim Duncan and Tony Parker (Manu Ginobili is already sidelined) to get his stars genuine rest and "put some money in the bank" for the second half of the season. The Spurs lost by 40, but with his team nearing the end of its long rodeo road trip, Pop, as he's done brilliantly over the last few seasons, took a big-picture approach.

Meanwhile, Kobe Bryant enters tonight's game against Dallas averaging 38.2 minutes a night, nearly 4.5 more than last season. And while attributing all of it to his workload isn't totally accurate (L.A.'s lack of coherent offense late in games doesn't help) there's probably some link between the heavy minutes and the fact Bryant shoots about 46 percent in the first three quarters, and 39.7 in the fourth.

Pau Gasol, it's worth noting, is playing a ton as well. Two guys, both over 30, both with real mileage on the tires, playing more than you'd like.

There are real differences between the Lakers and Spurs, no doubt. Most significantly, even after the loss Tuesday, San Antonio is 23-10, 2.5 games behind Oklahoma City for the Western Conference's top seed. As playoff positioning goes, the Spurs are in good shape. The Lakers are currently fifth, but only two games out of ninth. Not much space for wiggle in that room. Popovich also has more useful players at his disposal, allowing him not simply to leave guys in street clothes, but also keep his stars' minutes down game to game. Duncan averages under 30, Parker a hair over 34, Ginobili, working himself into post-injury shape for much of the year, only 21.8.

So it's definitely easier for Pop to rest his guys, but that doesn't mean Brown can't do better. He has talked a lot about reducing Bryant's workload, but thus far hasn't in any significant way. Lack of depth contributes, but so does a certain lack of willingness. The weakness of their bench and offensive punch makes garbage time hard to find, but Brown has options the other way, too. He absolutely could have pulled the plug on Sunday's game in Phoenix -- the first in a stretch of four games in five nights-- after the Lakers fell down by 27, and kept Kobe from playing 40 minutes in what turned out to be a 12-point loss.

Pop almost surely would have.

Sitting his stars, as Popovich did Tuesday, isn't going to be an option for Brown, but he'll face some tough choices over the last 34 games relative to Bryant's minutes in particular. How he balances that is shaping up to be a significant storyline for the Lakers down the stretch and into the postseason.

LOS ANGELES -- When Kobe Bryant’s last-second, game-winning jumper in the paint was blocked by Luol Deng, there was no flailing, no complaining and no blank stares at his bare hands.

As soon as the buzzer sounded, Bryant looked at Derek Fisher then quietly walked off the court.

This will be a different season that will require different responses to heartbreaking losses, and no one knows that better than Bryant and Fisher.

The only players on the Los Angeles Lakers who have played in a lockout-shortened season are Bryant and Fisher, and they are the only ones who know what the team’s dreaded back-to-back-to-back games to start the season will feel like.

Four hours after Bryant’s missed shot gave the Chicago Bulls an 88-87 win to start the season on Christmas Day, the Lakers were scheduled to board a chartered flight to Sacramento to play the Kings on Monday night. Immediately after that game, they will board a chartered flight back to Los Angeles to play the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night.

If the Lakers' players missed basketball during the lockout, they will certainly get their fill over the first 72 hours of the season.

When the Lakers left the locker room after the loss, there were no messages about the game or words of advice for tomorrow, just a travel reminder.

“9:00 FLT”

Bryant had to pause when he was asked to recall the last time he played a back-to-back-to-back series.

“I really don’t remember much,” he said. “I was like 19 so I don’t even know if I was tired or not. We had one in Vancouver and the next day Kurt [Rambis] lost his job. It was a mess. It was a mess. That’s all I remember.”

Actually, Bryant was 20, and it was Del Harris who lost his job. It was Rambis who replaced Harris after the Lakers started the season 6-6.

“Whoever,” Bryant said. “One of them.”

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