By J.A. Adande
ESPN.com
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LOS ANGELES -- The Lakers don't have a championship to defend for the first time since 2008. The Lakers don't have speed, they don't have players who can create their own shots (that wasn't a criticism, that was their coach's own assessment). Over their previous three games they didn't even have a victory.

What they do have, buried somewhere inside those golden jerseys, is pride.

That it took the Clippers to bring it out of the Lakers says something about the Clippers' nascent threat to their Southern California hoops supremacy. But ultimately it was the Lakers who prevailed 96-91 Wednesday night when the in-building battle got physical, when execution down the stretch became critical, when desire became paramount.

Perhaps it should not have taken this long to reappear. It shouldn't have required the potential of a fourth consecutive loss to bring it out. They shouldn't have needed a welcomed extended practice session on Tuesday to figure out who they were again. But if the Lakers are to become what they want to be, they had to rediscover what they had been.

There was something present that wasn't there over the past week, which featured a 73-point outing against the Dallas Mavericks, back-to-back losses by a combined 25 points in Miami and Orlando, and a blown 13-point lead in a loss against the Indiana Pacers that left Pau Gasol grumbling about his role in the offense.

Wednesday night, Metta World Peace played with the rough-and-reckless abandon of Ron Artest. The officials allowed him to be physical and it seemed to buoy the rest of his game, turning him into a rebounder, a playmaker, a shot-blocker and finally a 3-point-shot-maker (after Bryant out-battled Caron Butler for a rebound).

Gasol insisted on getting the shots he wanted, refusing to allow even the aggressive defense of Clippers reserve forward Reggie Evans to deter him. Kobe Bryant wound up outscoring Gasol 24-23 but it still felt like Gasol's night.

Gasol got some post-ups, and he got the ball. He took 13 shots and made nine of them. He had the nastier attitude Bryant always tries to bring out of him, and he even seemed edgier in his postgame interviews.

"It wasn't like we were going to run more sets for me," Gasol said politely but not pleasantly. "Just play hard and good things will come."

The interesting side effect was that Bryant took fewer shots in his favored locations below the free throw line, took fewer shots overall. He finished 7-for-17, but did come up with seven assists. He caught some people off guard with a baseline drive, in the midst of what's normally Kobe Time, that turned into an alley-oop to Bynum.

Bryant's description of Gasol could easily apply to the rest of the squad.

"You could tell the difference between Pau [against] Indiana and Pau tonight," Bryant said. "That's two championships right there."

The remnants of those ring-winning seasons rattled around inside the Lakers' heads Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Clippers had four turnovers in the final five minutes (including Griffin's stepping out of bounds while curiously setting up for a shot in 3-point territory).

"Everybody played with the right attitude, the right temperament," Bryant said. "Guys did what they did best. Ron -- Metta -- was being himself. He wasn't trying to be this peaceful guy. You've got to be who you are, and we'll surround you."

This game was far from peaceful. It featured six technical fouls, an ejection (of Lakers forward Josh McRoberts, for reasons still unbeknown to him) and a flagrant foul. There were shoves, staredowns, and even a pat on the head from Gasol to Chris Paul that angered the Clipper point guard.

There wasn't that elusive 100-point night that the Lakers have achieved only once this season. And that's fine with Mike Brown.

"We're not going to score 110 points, because we're not a fast-paced team or a high-possession team," Brown said.

The Clippers are the ones who are supposed to be high-flying and high-scoring. While they got their requisite number of highlight plays (even Bryant admitted, "You have to enjoy and admire that stuff") they didn't reach their customary field goal percentage of 45 percent or points average of 97.4, scoring 91 points on 42.5 percent shooting.

The second half, in particular, reflected the type of defense Mike Brown wants his Lakers to play. After the Clippers made six of the first eight shots that Bynum contested, they missed all seven such attempts in the second half to finish 6-for-15 in my made-up Shots Over Bynum's Outstretched Arms statistic. The Clippers shot 38.6 percent and scored 40 points in the second half.

"We definitely trusted each other a lot more [defensively]," said Bynum, who finished with four blocked shots to go with his 19 points.

The Clippers led most of the night, only to let the game get away from them in the final six minutes.

"We let it slip out of our hands," Griffin said.

"It did get chippy out there. I think [the series has] changed. But we're not sitting here trying to call it a rivalry or anything like that."

Since the teams have never met in the playoffs, Bryant scoffed at the notion that it's a rivalry. A question about whether this victory reasserted the Lakers' status as the kings of L.A. caused Bryant to break his recent vow to avoid cursing in the postgame interviews.

He did respect the fight the Clippers showed, however.

"That's how it should be," Bryant said. "You've got to know who you're messing with, too."

That would be the Los Angeles Lakers, who finally seemed to realize that themselves.

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