LOS ANGELES -- The Lakers have hit such a high level of efficiency against the Suns that the only downside is these Western Conference finals will do nothing to prepare them for what might lie ahead.

If the Lakers make the next round, they won't find themselves standing alone under the hoop with the ball, they won't be able to get easy put-back baskets solely by virtue of their long arms and they certainly won't be shooting 58 percent through two games, all of which have occurred at various points during this series with the Suns.

The "We want Boston" chants coming from the upper reaches of Staples Center were louder in Game 2 than they were in the Lakers' easy victory in Game 1. There was no chance of their being mistaken for the usual "We want tacos" chant tied into a fast-food giveaway when the Lakers win and hold the opponent below 100 points. (Besides, if your dining hopes depend on holding the Suns below 100 points you're better off heading straight to the soup kitchen).

The mini-rivalry with the Suns in the early post-Shaq years was a quaint storyline that Kobe Bryant tried to enhance before this series began, but it has nowhere near the history and passion of Lakers-Celtics. And it would undoubtedly contain something missing from this series: resistance.

The Lakers have scored 108 points in the paint while winning the first two games. They are giants wading through the shallow end of the pool. At this point the only thing to be gained from the rest of the series against the Suns is confidence in and from Pau Gasol, and lessons in pain tolerance for Andrew Bynum.

Gasol was the story in Game 2, going for 29 points in the Lakers' 124-112 victory. He capitalized on the Suns' attention to Bryant and sometimes was left all alone. He lulled Amare Stoudemire to sleep in anticipating screen-rolls, then broke unmolested to the hoop. Or he victimized Stoudemire with an Olajuwonian shake move and jumper. He scored 14 points in the final period to allow the Lakers to sprint away in a game that was tied after 36 minutes.

"I was being effective and just finishing plays," Gasol said. "We just continued to go to it because it was working pretty well for us."

Bynum wasn't in the game for the stretch run, but he had already recorded 13 points and seven rebounds in 18½ minutes. His playing time was restricted as both a cautionary measure for the torn cartilage in his knee and as a matchup issue with the Suns' small lineup that included Stoudemire, Grant Hill and Jared Dudley in the front line for much of the fourth.

He described his knee as "painful" and said it's getting a little worse, but is gradually accepting that it will be this way for the rest of the playoffs.

The question is how long the Lakers can continue their winning ways, with a streak that reached eight games Wednesday night.

The Lakers had so many things go right in Game 1 that the next day Suns coach Alvin Gentry rattled off four players that hurt his team and didn't even get to Gasol. There's no way the Lakers will win a game against the Celtics if Gasol is that far down the list. It's got to be Bryant, Gasol and Bynum making an impact for the Lakers if they're going to successfully defend their championship against the team that beat them in 2008 and is halfway toward getting back to the Finals, with a 2-0 lead against the Orlando Magic and two home games on deck.

The Lakers won three games in which they scored fewer than 100 points in the first round. They've won their past two by scoring at least 124.

"We're just extremely versatile," Bryant said.

He showed some versatility himself in dishing out 13 assists -- the most by a Laker in a playoff game since Magic Johnson's 13 in 1996 -- on the night his streak of 30-plus scoring games ended at six.

"We can play pretty much every style," Bryant said. "It doesn't mean we're better than the team we're playing against, but it holds us in stretches. We know what our strength is and we know how to play to that. It's getting the ball inside."

I asked Lamar Odom, who lucked his way into another double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, to summarize the Lakers' playoff opponents to date -- the Thunder, Jazz and Suns -- with one word each and, in order, he responded with "youth," "toughness" and "quickness."

The Celtics, who appear to be on a collision course with the Lakers, are about veterans, toughness and size.

First the Lakers need to finish off the Suns, which is looking increasingly like a formality. The Lakers have won five of six games against the Suns in the regular season and the playoffs.

Game 3 isn't until Sunday, the best scenario for Bynum and Bryant's ailing knees. And if they can finish off the Suns early there's the promise of even more rest before the NBA Finals begin in June.

"We're going [there] to win," Bynum said. "That's how we feel. We have to beat this team. And we're remembering my rookie and sophomore year when they were the team that knocked us out of the playoffs; we understand that we need to go in and win Game 3 and not let them come back."

And then they could start remembering the team that beat them two years ago, the last to do so in a playoff series.

J.A. Adande is a regular contributor to the Daily Dime.

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