There is no question the Lakers respect the Spurs. There's also no question that the Lakers' new-found solidarity is, well, solid. The question is, will all that be enough to find the intensity and consistency they'll need to overcome the Spurs' homecourt advantage, particularly in Game 1?

I don't think so.

The Lakers' respect came through clearly when Phil Jackson, without prompting, recanted his previous description of San Antonio's championship in the '99 lockout-shortened season as deserving of an asterisk. The Zenmaster normally likes to rattle an opponent's cage before a series, believing that the subsequent spike of emotion will siphon energy needed later in the series.

He took a completely different tack this week, perhaps figuring that letting the low-key Spurs lie is a better strategy. "We have great respect for them," he said, "because they play with a sense about them."

The Lakers' cohesion also was apparent as they prepared to face the Spurs. Kobe, Ron Harper, Brian Shaw and Derek Fisher ribbed each other as they competed in a shooting drill near the end of the week's first practice. The surest sign players are getting along is when they can joke with each other. Kobe made fun of Harp's shooting stroke, suggesting it looked so much like a slingshot he should be firing rocks rather than leather. "Just kick it to the wing," Harp laughed as he buried his third shot in a row.

When it was Shaw's turn to shoot, Kobe fed him with passes he had to reach back to snare or pick off his shoetops. As Shaw knocked down a couple of shots, Kobe said, "I first saw that in Italy when I was five!" referring to the fact Shaw played against Kobe's dad, Jelly Bean, in the Italian League. (Kobe was more like 11 or 12 that year, but Shaw appreciated the irony.)

The team also gathered to plan a dinner out, something they did prior to each of the first two rounds. "It's meant a lot," said Rick Fox.

The reason it won't mean enough is that they've won 15 games in a row, including two playoff sweeps, without being seriously challenged. The Blazers barely put up a fight. Kobe insists the Lakers were rattled and recovered when the Kings took a nine-point lead in Game 4, but it's hard to give that a great deal of weight. The Spurs, meanwhile, played against a feisty and sharply-executing, if overmatched Timberwolves' squad, and then a feisty and freewheeling, if overmatched, Mavs' team. They're painfully aware of their margin of error, having lost. Twice.

The Lakers can tell themselves the Spurs are going to be tougher, that they'll have to execute better, that they can't afford the kind of letdowns that left the door open in Games 1, 2 and 4 against the Kings. But few teams are capable of sharpening their concentration without the sting of a disappointing loss to motivate them.

Maybe their relatively easy run of success won't cost them the series. But it's hard to imagine it'll help them in Game 1.

Ric Bucher is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ric.bucher@espnmag.com.