Payton Makes a Point and Team Better Listen

It’s probably nothing. A weekday afternoon, raining outside, stuffy inside . . . the entire thing felt like a bad field trip.

So what if a sold-out Superstore crowd could have sworn Monday it had seen the Seattle SuperSonics pull back the curtain on the wizard that rules the NBA?

So what if everyone saw not a real wizard, but a confused man who could not play defense on a great point guard?

It was surely nothing. An optical illusion.

We can wait a couple of weeks, pull back the curtain again when everyone is calm, get a better look, right?

Sure we can. For now, even in the wake of an 82-81 loss to the Sonics, we can believe the Lakers are still the Lakers.

They are still the team that has won 17 of its last 19 games.

They are not really that team that has lost two of its last three by losing the battle at point guard.

Right?

They are still the team that has beaten San Antonio, Utah and Phoenix.

They are not really that team that has lost to Gary Payton, Damon Stoudamire and Jason Williams.

True?

Gary Payton said so.

“There are a lot of turning points in a season, and this ain’t one of them,” the 36-point villain said Monday afternoon. “The Lakers are still a good team. This is just a good win for us.”

So there.

That Payton scored the SuperSonics’ first seven points, and seven of their last 10, was just happenstance.

OK, so Ron Harper couldn’t guard him. And Derek Fisher couldn’t guard him. And Kobe Bryant really, really couldn’t guard him.

At one point, Payton ran Bryant up and back, around and around, from sideline to shining sideline, then faked a shot with his right hand and banked it in with his left.

Kobe watched the ball ripple the net, then spread his arms and laughed. And who could blame him?

“If I get on a roll, hardly anybody can stay with me,” Payton said. “I can punish a lot of people.”

So the Lakers are not alone.

“Gary Payton is very, very savvy,” Bryant said.

But aren’t the Lakers?

They are playing the best defense seen in this town since Deacon Jones was in cleats. This is a defense that was instituted with enough knuckle rapping and ear pulling that everyone is finally paying attention.

Right?

And that game-winning play by the SuperSonics, it was another optical illusion, correct?

So Payton is left unguarded for five city blocks because Harper doesn’t run on top of the screen, because he is worried that if Payton gets past him, he won’t have any help.

So Payton can take his time and sink the 27-footer with 15.9 seconds left to give the SuperSonics a keepsake they will surely pull out next spring.

So?

“At least go out there and . . . help someone out, don’t you think?” Harper said afterward.

Yeah, but he was frustrated.

“We just didn’t play good team defense,” Shaquille O’Neal said. “We should have made someone else take that shot.”

OK, but Shaq had just played 47 minutes and was tired.

“We’ve got to be able to come out and help our guards on the pick-and-rolls,” Glen Rice said.

Fine, but he’s probably mad because he missed nine of 13 shots.

Everything about Monday’s loud game screamed playoffs.

As in, in each of the previous three seasons, the Lakers have been embarrassed out of the playoffs because of their inability to do things on defense, such as call out picks, and make switches, and think.

One minute they were losing their shoes to John Stockton and Karl Malone. The next minute, they were running into walls against Avery Johnson and Tim Duncan.

The team offense has always been strong. The team defense has always been scary.

So watching the Lakers struggle with this concept Monday, struggle to guard an all-star point guard with no all-star point guards of their own, one thought came to mind.

We’re just not going to think about that right now.

“Somebody like Gary could be a danger to the Lakers, but only if they face him, and there’s only one of him,” said Brent Barry.

Good point.

“I’m not going to point fingers--when Gary is hot, nobody can stop him,” Ruben Patterson said.

Right on.

This is a Laker team that is going to seriously compete for an NBA championship.

This is not that team that is going to be dragged away early again because it is too unskilled and unselfish to play team defense.

Is it?

*

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