The Lakers actually won a playoff opener on their home court, which Boston, San Antonio, Orlando and alleged up-and-comer Portland couldn't claim.
But nobody beyond a briefly optimistic Kobe Bryant seemed enthusiastic about a 113-100 victory Sunday over the Utah Jazz in Game 1 of a best-of-seven series.
A 22-point Lakers halftime lead turned into a choppy, unsettled ending, the Lakers finally giving their fans something to cheer about in the second half when Bryant dunked after a drive down the lane with 1:26 to play.
The joy was short-lived.
Lakers Coach Phil Jackson thought so little of the second half that he wrote a simple postgame phrase on the whiteboard in the locker room: "15? Not like that."
It was a reference to the Lakers' needing 15 more victories to win the franchise's 15th NBA championship.
"I don't even know if we can say we prevailed on that second-half effort, but we got the win," Jackson said to reporters. "It wasn't a coach's delight, that's for sure, but we were able to outscore them."
The game started so well for a team that didn't finish so well in last season's playoffs.
Trevor Ariza was flammable in the first quarter and Bryant followed up some successful shots with confident looks toward rapper Kanye West, seated in a courtside chair.
It looked like the beginning of a Lakers playoff party, a 62-40 halftime edge as the home team shot 65.7%.
But the second half was controlled by Utah, which never came closer than nine points but dictated a slow, foul-filled pace that kept the Lakers in check, perhaps a preview of Game 2 Tuesday at Staples Center.
Bryant, who had 24 points and eight assists, was optimistic at first -- "It was a good game," he said -- but became more critical as a postgame session with reporters progressed.
The Lakers' defense lagged in the second half and the Jazz earned 28 free throws, a concept that Bryant captured by saying the game "became a muck."
"Any time you get to the line it stops the momentum. It doesn't enable us to get out in transition, get momentum and build up on the lead," he said. "It's a stop-and-go game, and that's exactly the style of basketball that they play."
Jackson didn't like that the Jazz took 20 offensive rebounds and the Lakers only seven.
Along those lines, Andrew Bynum wasn't great in his first playoff start, finishing with seven points, three rebounds and five fouls in 20 minutes.
