Lakers' nice little effort puts them closer

SAN ANTONIO -- Aside from all the Lakers dreams and nightmares that came true here, this is where their teams have gone to find out who they were for the last 10 years.

This team just passed -- barely.

The Lakers let the Spurs back into the series in Game 3 and almost gave them back Game 4.

On the other hand, the Lakers came home with a win to go up, 3-1, in the Western Conference finals, although anyone who thinks it's over has missed a lot of Spurs history.

Not that the Lakers are exactly striking fear in peoples' hearts, or welcome to the Soft Parade.

After they were routed in Game 3, reviewers were on the harsh side, like the San Antonio Express-News' Buck Harvey, who called their front line Weenie (Pau Gasol), NSP for Not Scottie Pippen (Lamar Odom) and Space Cadet (Vladimir Radmanovic).

Not that this was heartless bashing, since those characterizations originated with the Lakers' coaching staff.

Lakers Coach Phil Jackson has mentioned Gasol's "weenie shots" more than once and called Radmanovic "space cadet," not to mention "my favorite Martian."

As for NSP, it was team consultant Tex Winter who first noted that Kobe Bryant and Odom weren't Michael Jordan and Pippen since Lamar was so unlike Scottie.

Happily for the Lakers, if they aren't great, they can still win a title without having to play any other great teams, there being none around.

In the really good news for the Lakers, they're just warming up. With a healthy Andrew Bynum, as the Express-News' Harvey said last week, "the Lakers who are in San Antonio today will be remembered as a nice little team."

As happy as that prospect is for the Lakers, as the saying goes, the past is gone, the future only imagined and the present the only thing that's real.

This nice little team is 33-8 with Gasol in the lineup, a 66-win pace, although we're still finding out who they are as the tests get harder.

Everyone in Lakerdom was shocked -- shocked! -- in the Utah series to learn Gasol had problems against physical teams.

Here's a scoop: It didn't just start against Utah.

For all Gasol's skills, he has never been physical. Whether it was because European players are stereotyped, his toughness has been questioned -- or sneered at -- as when Reggie Evans, then in Denver, called him "that girl."

However, Gasol also isn't a center, although he has to play there now.