Mean Season for Lakers, Clippers

March used to be the time when the NBA dropped out of sight while the NCAA tournament took over. But the Lakers and Clippers hooked up Friday for a game that really mattered, with implications that could be felt from now until late April.

We can finally call Lakers vs. Clippers a rivalry now. The Lakers can’t just coast. They have to summon some championship-caliber poise to win, as they did in Friday’s 98-92 victory.

And the Clippers won’t back down to anyone. Michael Olowokandi was even willing to go toe-to-toe with Shaquille O’Neal, as he did in two little flare-ups that earned them a pair of double-technicals and a late-game ejection. (Afterward, Olowokandi said that if O’Neal didn’t like players being physical against him, “He should grow up.”)

For the most part, things were cordial, though. Even the Lakers had to smile at some of the Clippers’ athletic feats, and there were lots of handshakes and hugs afterward.

“It’s always going to be a good game against us,” Clipper forward Darius Miles said. “I think they give us a lot of respect now.... Every time we play it’s a fun game. We shake their hand after the game, win or lose. They shake our hand after the game, win or lose. It’s going to be all right.”

In what might be the ultimate sign of respect, Phil Jackson actually acknowledges the presence of the Clippers. He even thinks it worth the time to send a message to them. When Jackson’s ready to engage in psychological warfare with a team, that’s a sign it has arrived.

So here was Jackson, before Friday night’s game against the Clippers, looking ahead to a possible playoff matchup.

“It’s important, if we’re in first and they’re eighth, that we have the ability to play them well enough to make them think about the next time they play us,” Jackson said.

Referring to their previous meeting, a 95-90 Clipper victory, Jackson said, “They came back off a game in which we really dominated the first half and played a spectacular third quarter and were able to gain some confidence about playing against us. We’re going to have to take that out of them if we want to recognize the fact that they could be eighth and we could be first in our conference.”

Both teams came in right on the heels of their targets. The Lakers were half a game behind the Pacific Division- and Western Conference-leading Sacramento Kings (they caught them with the victory), the Clippers half a game behind Utah for the eighth spot in the West (they’re now 11/2 behind after the Jazz won in Detroit).

Meanwhile, we’re to the point where Jackson is taking things seriously. Come spring he often talks about sending messages, as if he were endorsing a two-way pager. Jackson can go ahead and enter mark.cuban@dallasmavs.com in his “to” field, because the Mavericks come to Staples Center for another big showdown on Sunday. If there’s any contender that has major feelings of inadequacy about beating the Lakers, it’s Dallas. The Lakers hope to drive them back to the couch for more therapy.

The Clippers are slowly erasing doubt. They’ve shown they can win on the road, they’ve shown they can hang with the Lakers. Friday night counted toward both categories, since this was officially a Laker home game.

The Clippers weren’t as caught up in the mind games and matchups as Jackson.

“If we get in the playoffs, we wouldn’t care if we were playing the New England Patriots,” Gentry said. “We’re just trying to get there.”

One of the reasons the Clippers have done so well without the injured Lamar Odom is that Gentry has an easier time finding minutes for Miles.

Miles showed the total package Friday. He worked the baseline with some polished moves. He D’d up Kobe Bryant and blocked three of his shots. He threw down an alley-oop from Jeff McInnis. For a little something extra, he tossed in a running three-pointer from 28 feet just before halftime to give him 11 second-quarter points.

Besides Miles’ show, the Clippers hung in the game because they worked the offensive boards to get 28 second-chance points. They used to get destroyed in that category.

They used to be the guys who got blown out of games, but it was the Clippers who put together a 22-2 second-half run to turn a 10-point deficit into a double-digit lead.

But the Lakers got back to executing their offense, so well that even Jackson was satisfied.

As far as previews go, this wasn’t a completely accurate indication of how the Lakers will fare in the playoffs, because they won’t be playing back-to-back games in the postseason. They were coming off a game at Golden State on Thursday.

But this could provide a glimpse of where they’ll be seeded. The Lakers have four sets of back-to-back games remaining.

They have no more games against the Clippers.

Unless ...

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J.A. Adande can be reached at: j.a.adande@latimes.com