Rest comes after test

What next?

Not much, actually.

To the victors goes some rest. The Lakers took the day off Friday, kicking back with only one game on their schedule over the next five days, the better to reflect, if not revel, in their 92-83 Christmas Day win over the Boston Celtics at Staples Center.

Their defense kicked it up another level, their bench provided some inspired play, Pau Gasol punched an on-court ballot for All-Star consideration, and now they can all pencil themselves in as the next NBA champions.

Or maybe not.

“It’s nice and it feels great,” forward Luke Walton said. “But as a team, we know that all it is is one win. For us to redeem ourselves and feel better about what happened last year, we’ve got to win a championship. Our team knows that. That’s our goal.”

That goal might have needed some retooling had the Lakers lost at home, yet again, to Boston.

But an 11-2 run in the last three minutes ended the Celtics’ team-record 19-game winning streak and put the spotlight back on a Lakers defense that recaptured its early-season strength after a clear-the-air meeting Sunday in Memphis.

Players and coaches spent a solid 15 minutes that day voicing concerns about the loss of their defensive mind-set in an environment that could politely be called animated.

The results have come quickly.

The Lakers ended their game the next day against Memphis with a 20-5 run. Then they held New Orleans to 37 points in the first half of a 100-87 victory. Then they held the Celtics to almost 19 points below their scoring average.

Their defense no longer rests.

“We’ve really put some emphasis back on it,” Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said. “Offense is easy, defense is work. Guys have to work twice as hard defensively to stop the other team from scoring because that’s their pleasure. We have to always know that we have to outwork guys and we’d forgotten that.”

Jackson also liked that the two Lakers who were non-factors in last season’s NBA Finals made an impact Thursday despite ordinary individual stats.

Andrew Bynum, who missed the Finals because of a knee injury, had nine points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots Thursday, numbers that aren’t phenomenal on their own, though Jackson noticed the Celtics’ needing to adjust to Bynum’s presence on numerous occasions.

Jackson highlighted Bynum’s ability to clog the lane on defense and thought he distracted the Celtics on pick-and-roll sequences when the Lakers were on offense, freeing up other teammates.

“He didn’t have the best offensive game, but he’s a threat,” Jackson said. “They had to really notice and register on his ‘rolls’ and take care of him.”

Trevor Ariza, who averaged under six minutes a game in the Finals, had only two points and three assists Thursday, but he put the game out of a reach with a double-clutch reverse dunk that drew a thunderous reaction from the Staples Center crowd with 1:12 to play.

Ariza, whose hustle also sparked a three-point play by Sasha Vujacic in the second quarter, was all alone after Kobe Bryant fed him.

“I was thinking about just trying to take some more time off the clock, but then, I said, nah, forget it. It was wide open,” Ariza said.

The Lakers return to practice today and play host to Golden State on Sunday. Then they don’t play again until Friday at home against Utah.

In the interim, they’ll make a minor push to find another ballhandling guard in place of Jordan Farmar, who’s out eight weeks because of knee surgery.

There will be another day or two of downtime. Assistant coach Kurt Rambis will travel to Santa Clara University to get his jersey retired Monday at his alma mater.

As Thursday showed, it’s good to be a Laker these days.

Etc.

Many people were opening gifts but watching TV too.

The Lakers-Celtics game posted a 5.3 TV rating and drew an estimated 9.96 million viewers on ABC, the highest-rated regular-season NBA game in four years, according to ESPN.

The Lakers and Miami Heat drew a 7.3 rating on Christmas Day 2004.

Last year’s Christmas game between the Lakers and Phoenix earned a 3.5 rating and had an estimated 5.98 million viewers on ABC.

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mike.bresnahan@latimes.com