The feeling that Lakers ‘are better than they show’

From San Antonio

Five games, eight days of bonding with the Lakers, and we begin two hours before tipoff here with the Sputtering Machine shooting free throws all by himself.

He makes 105 in a row before missing, making the ballboy run up and down the court for doubting him, and I really like our chances of winning tonight if Sasha Vujacic is standing at the free-throw line.

That would be a pretty good indication the Lakers are already up by 20 or so if he’s in the game.

I might’ve suggested backing up a few feet since the Machine is being paid $5 million to hit three-pointers and that’s not going so well, but I came here intent on seeing only the good in our heroes.

That’s why I start by tossing a softball to Phil Jackson, an appetizer for when we go to dinner, asking before the Spurs’ game if he felt this group of guys was championship timber, using a Montana term as an indication of fellowship.

“I can’t really judge or gauge that right now,” he says after a number of what he calls “lackluster” wins. “I haven’t been sufficiently impressed by them, but keep getting assurances that they are better than they show.”

Lamar Odom is saying the same thing inside the locker room, no doubt in his mind, though, this team is championship material despite some less-than-inspiring basketball recently, “because I think some people forget the importance of getting there.

“We lost in the Finals and then we won, so we can honestly say we know what it takes, individually and as a team to get there.”

That’s why Odom plays on, he says, his shoulder in pain. Twice before he felt the same kind of pain and in both cases he underwent surgery later.

“I’ll just play,” he says. “It’s simple. I have to. I’ve done it before.

“It’s going to hurt, some people learn how to play with pain whether it be emotionally or physical. I’ve been one of those guys. I know some time I’m going to call on it, and it’s going to let me down, but I’ll just have to go on to the next play.”

And then the game starts, and it’s a good thing Odom’s back doesn’t hurt, because he’s carrying the Lakers in the early going.

He has 10 first-quarter points, answering the Spurs’ frenetic energy and tops it all with a drive the length of the court to close the frame with a driving right-handed layup.

First time maybe he’s ever scored using his right hand in his entire career, which prompts his wife, Khloe, to tweet to her more than 1.1 million followers, “Take that baby!!!”

Times’ beat writer Mike Bresnahan considers tweeting his follower, but for some reason he makes his mother wait.

KHLOE TWEETS to let everyone know she’s on her way to the airport and then Miami. A veteran of reality TV, she knows how this is going to end.

The Spurs are playing without an injured Tony Parker, which ordinarily would make one think this would be a game for the taking — fool’s gold for reality TV followers.

George Hill is his replacement and he puts 20 first-half points on the Lakers’ point guards.

Yes sir, those guys who hail from IUPUI are sensational — for maybe a half. Hill will finish the game with 21; it’s not nice to embarrass the champions.

Ron Artest, the guy who doesn’t fit in with the Lakers according to one columnist, turns the game in the favor of our guys and makes it a Spurs debacle. He blows kisses to a woman wearing a Lakers jersey and glittering mop on her head.

Wouldn’t be surprised to see him wearing the mop in Oklahoma City.

Later Jackson will say he has to remind himself to get Artest in more because “he changes the game up.”

Artest’s defensive muscle is too much for the Spurs, and while it’s Odom’s fast start that keeps our guys in the game, it’s Kobe Bryant who closes the show.

Bryant attempts a pair of threes in the fourth quarter, makes both and the Spurs are left to contemplate where they might start the playoffs on the road.

“When Tony comes back that will be a different team, deeper,” says Bryant, but still old, Tim Duncan no longer the player who can dominate.

Odom finishes with 19 points and 13 rebounds, Jackson saying later the coaches have asked the one-armed man to be more aggressive.

As for all of our guys, they prove that when they want to turn it on, they’re unstoppable. Jackson gets the idea to mention it at halftime. “We were telling the guys at half time that they weren’t expending themselves and they were pacing themselves.”

Bryant says later it felt like a playoff atmosphere, the Lakers then eliminating the Spurs, outscoring them 51-35 in the second half, five players in double figures, and we win, we win.

Everyone is having such a good time in the locker room, I almost said something to Bryant.

As for dinner, Jackson says he has plans in Oklahoma City, New Orleans and Atlanta, and imagine that.

But when lunch is mentioned, he says, “OK,” and whether that means, “OK, let’s do lunch” or “OK, now I’ve got to make lunch arrangements so I can say I’m busy,” we’ll discuss it Thursday in Oklahoma City.

What else is there to do in Oklahoma City?

t.j.simers@latimes.com