Now Comes Real Playoff Pressure

Did you hear that sound? It filled the Staples Center on Tuesday, buried underneath the cheers, but alive nonetheless, ringing in the minds of those who understood.

Yep. Cowbells.

Did you feel that chill? Late in the Lakers’ playoff game against the San Antonio Spurs, it raised a little shiver in those who had been expecting it.

Yep. Arco.

Did you get a taste of that whine? It was added to the concession menu immediately after the game, but one could already imagine.

Yep. Webber.

All of which is to say, there were three teams on the court Tuesday in the fifth and clinching game of the Western Conference semifinals.

Lakers 93, Spurs 87, Sacramento Kings next.

“We’re at a place now where we wanted to be all along,” Kobe Bryant said afterward. “We have a tough task ahead.”

Indeed, Tuesday’s Laker victory and four-game-to-one series win was not about ordinary basketball.

Despite getting pushed around by the Spurs until the final moments, this was calisthenics. It took longer only because it was difficult playing one team while thinking about another one.

(At least that is what we can tell ourselves, now that the Spurs have returned to their steamy little cantina for the summer.)

The awful first quarter, when Rick Fox scored twice as many points as any other two Lakers combined?

Push-ups.

The second quarter, when the Lakers shot only 39% and trailed by as many as 13 points?

Jumping jacks.

In the third quarter, when the Lakers finally played defense and the Spurs missed six consecutive shots and the game became even, those cheers were about relief.

Then, finally, in the fourth quarter, when Bryant was again stunning and Fox was again swarming and Lindsey Hunter appeared out of absolutely nowhere, the cheers were about Sacramento.

Not that the fans actually said it.

Nobody was chanting “Beat Sacramento!” perhaps because of the degree of syllable difficulty.

For the same reason, perhaps, nobody was following Phil Jackson’s lead in chanting, “Beat the Semi-Civilized!”

Doesn’t matter what anybody says, really. The time for talking is finished even before it starts.

Here comes the team with the NBA’s best record, the only team that has ever had a viable chance of dethroning the Lakers, a team that will immediately paint themselves as poor little underdogs.

Despite having home-court advantage in the loudest arena in the league.

Despite the momentum of an impressive second-round series win that included an overtime victory in Dallas with their three best players on the bench.

Despite having two players for whom the Lakers suddenly have no match--Chris Webber and Mike Bibby.

Underdog, schmunderdog.

“They are coming out of that series like they are invincible,” Jackson said.

No, he wasn’t talking about his team.

“This is not time to celebrate,” Shaquille O’Neal said late Tuesday. “We know what we have to do.”

The first time these teams met in the playoffs two years ago, in the first round, the Kings were badly overmatched but used surprise as a weapon in pushing the Lakers to a deciding fifth game.

Last season, the Kings were more skilled, but the Lakers were more cautious, and swept them out of the second round.

This spring?

If you are judging the regular season, the Kings were a better team. Three games better, to be exact.

If you are judging the postseason, the Kings are a better team. Or have you been tuning in only for the fourth quarters?

“We’ve gotten results, but we’re still searching for the type of rhythm that separates us from the fray,” Fox said.

The Lakers have indeed the aura. But the Kings have spent two postseasons staring up at that aura, long enough to recognize its flaws.

Peja Stojakovic, who averaged 18 points against the Lakers, could be missing with a sprained ankle.

But the Kings know O’Neal has twice that many injured feet.

Webber always seems to have big-game problems, with or without Tyra Banks at his

side.

But the Kings know that Bryant has emerged this postseason as the Lakers’ only consistent pressure threat.

And they feel they have at least an occasional answer for him in defensive specialist Doug Christie.

The most important thing about the Kings is that, for the first time ever, they may actually feel they can beat the Lakers in a seven-game series.

In the last three years, no team in the NBA has felt like that.

But how much will that matter?

“Lots of teams have said they have resolve,” Fox said. “But the results are still the same.”

Upon finishing off the Spurs on Tuesday night, the Lakers walked off the court with few smiles amid the confetti.

As well as they understand the fourth-quarter clock, they also understand a calendar.

The playoffs start now.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.