It’s taken a long time, but the Lakers have arrived

What kept you?

Meet the Lakers, the team no one wants to play... now.

The sky not only didn’t fall in Lakerdom — although, I’m serious, a little piece hit me on the head — there’s no longer even a cloud in sight.

Not that things change fast, but it’s just two weeks since Game 5 in the first round when Kobe Bryant asked why there was so much gloom and doom with the Lakers and the Oklahoma City Thunder tied, 2-2.

Not that Bryant was looking his best, although it wasn’t until later that he acknowledged playing Games 3 and 4 “on one leg, basically.”

What happened?

That is, aside from everything falling perfectly, like Denver, one of the teams the Lakers feared, falling to Utah, which couldn’t handle their length with Mehmet Okur out ... and San Antonio, the other team the Lakers feared, falling to Phoenix, another sawed-off team they’ve owned ... and the NBA decreeing a week of rest?

Aside from that, the Lakers became the team everyone waited three seasons to see.

From Feb. 1, 2008, the day the Lakers got Pau Gasol from Memphis, the combination of Bryant and the seven-foot tandem of Pau and Andrew Bynum seemed to raise the Lakers above all others.

The mere prospect unhinged the West. The Suns, leading the conference, at 34-15, promptly abandoned the offense no one could guard to grab Miami’s Shaquille O’Neal before Dallas could.

A few days later, the Mavericks, No. 2 in the West at 35-17, broke up their team to get 34-year-old Jason Kidd,

Of course, instead of realizing their greatness that season, the Lakers fell on their faces against the Boston Celtics in the Finals.

Bynum didn’t make it back from injury, leaving Gasol, who’s a lot softer playing alongside Lamar Odom, to get beaten on by Boston’s Kendrick Perkins.

Nor did their greatness arrive in last spring’s harrowing postseason run to a title.

This season it was the last thing on anyone’s mind as they tumbled down the stretch, looking as if they had as much chance of making history by getting knocked out in the first round by a No. 8-seeded team.

One month into the postseason and look who’s here, the sleeping giant the other 29 teams feared would awake for so long!

If Bynum’s injuries delayed this day, or if Andrew is healthy enough to make the difference, there were more issues, or the same one over and over.

Yes, it was their famous Lack of Urgency, which surfaced, amazingly, at the 2008 Finals when they got serious too late to keep the Celtics from mopping the floor with them ... and in last spring’s Houston series ... and this season, too, after the All-Star break, which was, at least, preferable to a wakeup call in May.

Some good things happened after that, if not many and not for long.

Bynum, who had never played enough to adjust to Gasol — Pau tended to get more shots and Andrew tended to nod off — finally got it.

In a 4-0 run in early March, they averaged 44 points, 20 rebounds and 3.8 blocks, including a 102-96 win in Phoenix against the Suns, who had just won eight of 11.

Phoenix Coach Alvin Gentry was ejected, protesting a hard foul Gasol took on Louis Amundson, who didn’t think it was a big deal.

Of course, the really upsetting thing for Gentry was seeing that his new lineup with 7-0 Robin Lopez still couldn’t beat the Lakers, on his own floor.

Bynum was hurt a few days later, and there went the Lakers’ renaissance again.

They finished 3-6 as Bryant left the lineup, twice. By then, they weren’t thinking about renaissance, but survival.

And now, they’re big guys again.

If they’re healthy — with Bynum’s knee a bigger issue now than Bryant’s — this could be the start of something big, although, as we’ve seen, that’s some if.

For all that stuff about Bryant’s elevation, and everyone like TNT’s Charles Barkley who doubted he could be what he was, Kobe has and should continue doing so.

With all the minutes Kobe has played, he’s 31 with masterful technique like that of Michael Jordan, who won his last three titles at 33, 34 and 35.

“People made Kobe mad,” said Utah’s Deron Williams. “People owe him an apology.

“I heard Chuck say he was getting old and he’s not going to be able to do the things he did when he was young. He pretty much did them.”

If there are new threats on the horizon, like the athletic Thunder players who made the Lakers feel ancient, Phil Jackson has won titles with older teams, like his 1998 Chicago Bulls with Jordan, 35, Dennis Rodman, 37, Ron Harper, 34 and Scottie Pippen, 32.

Of course, that’s off in some distant future.

For the moment, let’s just say this beats April in Lakerdom.

mark.heisler@latimes.com

Buy Lakers playoff tickets here

---

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.

---