Out of the Blocks

You hate to say it, they don’t deserve it, in a perfect world it would have been a perfect bust.

But evidently, we needed this.

We needed to cheer a Shaquille O’Neal dunk, gasp at a Kobe Bryant layup, whoop at Eddie Jones, hoot at Charles Barkley, holler for the blindfolded guy trying to find the giant airplane boarding pass at halftime.

We needed to clap like cornball tourists when Jack Nicholson showed up on the video scoreboard.

We needed to act like sentimental old fools when Magic Johnson showed up at center court.

Judging from the consistent roar that warmed the packed Forum like an old friend, we needed to come together as one town rooting for one team again.

So we did Friday, forgiving if not forgetting the three-month labor dispute that sidelined the Lakers until they suddenly showed up to beat Houston, 99-91, in the opener of a very strange season.

In other parts of the country, surely, local NBA teams felt their fans’ wrath.

But not here, where our baseball team stopped playing in August and our football team stopped playing in 1994 and there has been absolutely nothing to unite anybody for months.

Here, where no matter how tainted the league, the locals are one of the favorites to win its championship.

Here, where, with no pro titles in a decade, a championship is a championship.

“I think the fans will come back because the city has fallen in love with this team,” said Magic before his pregame public welcome.

Like or not, he’s right. For more than two hours Friday, you could hear just how right.

Throughout the lockout, it was easy to turn the Lakers off, throw away the ticket forms, vow to make them pay.

It became considerably harder when they finally took the floor.

There was Bryant, starting at small forward, in place of injured Rick Fox, maybe starting forever.

The minute we sat down, he began spinning and swishing and muscling and, hey, even playing defense on Scottie Pippen.

The newest Rocket hit one of 10 shots in the first half, and never recovered, scoring just 10 points total.

Funny, but it makes it much easier to stomach Bryant’s wild misses when he actually causes the other guy to do the same thing.

Incidentally, all this talk about Bryant eventually replacing Michael Jordan, well, with his huge afro, he looked more like a young Julius Erving.

“And I’m not cutting it,” he said after scoring 25 points with a more impressive 10 rebounds. “I’m going to be old school.”

Then there was O’Neal, the last guy working hard during last season’s embarrassing sweep by the Utah Jazz, the first guy working hard this year.

Storming out of the locker room after the Lakers blew a 12-point lead in the second quarter to trail by four, O’Neal scored 10 points with four rebounds in the third period to give the Laker a new lead and new fight.

“It’s just like they’ve been saying in the paper,” Magic said before the game.

“If things don’t work out this season, people are going to be looking at Del [Harris] and Shaq.”

Finally, there was that new old guy, Derek Harper, acquired recently to provide a young team leadership.

How can a guy be with a team only two weeks and provide leadership? Here’s how: Swagger into a game for the first time in the first quarter after Bryant and Eddie Jones have just clanged jumpers . . . and calmly make a three-pointer.

Then do that again in the fourth quarter with the game still in doubt.

And after hitting that last three-pointer, blow a kiss to the crowd.

Seems to me, Nick Van Exel never blew us a kiss.

“These guys are just hungry for leadership,” said Harper, 37, whose 16 points and seven assists were more important numbers on this night.

“The key for this team is how much we can sacrifice for each other,” he said. “If we can do that, it can work.”

At least on this one night, it did work.

Late in the game, barely clutching a shrinking lead, an exhausted O’Neal backed down Hakeem Olajuwon and scored and was fouled for a three-point play.

Moments later, O’Neal missed but the possession was saved with a rebound from--yes, he’s still here--Elden Campbell.

Jones missed all seven shots in the first half, but hung in to make two of three important shots in the third quarter.

The Lakers were missing two starters--Fox and Robert Horry--yet behaved as if they were missing nothing.

This is just one game, and so much can and will go wrong in a season where the Lakers must keep up this fast pace as much as four times a week.

Will there be controversy when Fox returns and Bryant is benched again? Or isn’t benched again?

Will the Lakers leave Dennis Rodman well enough alone, or make the huge mistake of messing with a maturing chemistry that might finally work in June?

Will Harper still be walking in June?

“Hey, this is a good schedule for me,” he said. “Man, I can do 50 [games].”

With 16.3 seconds left Friday, and the Lakers leading by eight, exiting fans danced in the aisles as the loudspeakers finally blared, “I Love L.A.”

At least for one night, the Lakers reminded us all of that fact.

OK, OK. Welcome back.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com