Bruins reinforce L.A.’s dominance

Los Angeles is an empire. The biggest, baddest, most powerful basketball empire of them all.

We tend to forget this. We have grown accustomed to thinking the last several decades we’ve experienced here -- stuffed with genius players, master coaches and scores of titles -- is somehow normal, somehow automatic. As automatic as a Kareem sky hook or a Kevin Love dunk or a Kobe Bryant three-pointer with time ticking off the clock.

In a place where big egos are as common an accessory as hip-hugging jeans and implants, we gloss over our greatness. Maybe it is human nature; the way winning big brings on complacency.

There are moments when we need to catch ourselves. Moments when we need to remember that when it comes to basketball prowess, we are the lucky ones. The Bruins’ tight 75-65 victory on Saturday over Oregon -- a game played in the backdrop of the sudden resurgence of the Lakers -- was a beautiful reminder of this.

You feel it -- luck -- sitting there in Pauley Pavilion for an important conference game against a worthy rival. The fans rise and chant and their energy hits the hardwood, rises to the ceiling and then boomerangs back, settling somewhere in your gut.

You see it -- good fortune -- watching the Bruins with their gifts of talent and youth -- Russell Westbrook’s slam, Josh Shipp’s steal and drive -- all of this on a court shadowed by blue and gold NCAA title banners hanging from the rafters. There’s 1964 and 1965. There’s 1973 and 1975 and 1995 . . . banner next to banner next to banner.

How many Saturdays have been like this, games with an elite, highly ranked home team tested against a tough challenger?

Too many Saturdays to count. So many that we sometimes forget that in other cities -- in places such as Chicago and San Francisco, New York and Philadelphia -- college games with this kind of magnitude and talent rarely take place.

And Pauley is just the start. You look at what’s happening with the Lakers now -- a team on the rise -- and you think, again?

Yes, again. Of course.

You grow up, as I did, in a city such as Seattle and you’ve got one NBA title and two heroes: Gus Williams and Downtown Freddie Brown.

You grow up in this sun-kissed place and where do you start? 1972 or 1985? 1987 or 2002? Who hangs in your memories? Kareem or Wilt or Shaq? Jerry West or Worthy? Kareem or Kobe?

The Lakers might on occasion have lean and fallow seasons. But always they return. Same goes for the Bruins.

They proved on Saturday that they will be a serious force in the NCAA tournament. Not that they are without flaw. When they have the ball they too often play with all the speed and dexterity of a Humvee trapped during rush hour on the San Diego Freeway.

But that defense? Ben Howland’s boys know how to lay the hammer down. This is a defense that, when it kicks into high gear as it did late in Saturday’s game, makes the hair on the back of your neck stand straight.

While the overall approach might not be aesthetically pleasing it certainly works well enough, and there’s a good chance Howland will bring at least another title to LA.

In Boston, how can they match this? The Celtics are fantastic and fun once more. But where do you go when you are done with them, what college team do you watch on Saturdays? Boston College? Harvard?

Same goes for New York, Chicago, Philly and all of the others. They’ve all had moments of greatness. They’ve had Michael Jordan and Dr. J. They’ve had Loyola in 1963 and Villanova 23 years back. Greatness, in drips and drabs.

If anything, L.A.’s true challengers are smaller cities of the south and Midwest. I’m thinking of Durham and Lexington and Memphis and Knoxville. A team from one of those towns may well win an NCAA title this season. Kudos to them, at least they provide the Bruins worthy competition. None of these towns will lift an NBA banner in our lifetime.

We can always ship them the Clippers.

But maybe the Clippers are good for us. Same goes for Trojans’ basketball. The Clippers and Trojans are reminders that winning big -- year after year, decade after decade, college and pro -- is neither normal nor automatic.

And maybe, on occasion, we need to count our blessings and find ways to remind ourselves what the Lakers and Bruins have made Los Angeles: the biggest, baddest basketball empire around.

Pauley Pavilion on a Saturday should do the trick.

Kurt Streeter can be reached at kurt.streeter@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Streeter, go to latimes.com/streeter.