This Bunch Keeps the Games Exciting

Crazy, isn’t it, how the Lakers can go from normal to absurd, from the brink of embarrassment to triumph, all in the span of three hours.

Phil Jackson summed it up before the final exhibition game, when he said that this was a season of “suspicions and hopes,” and this was a team that could win 70 games or implode. That’s what makes them so fascinating.

We watch them rev up the motorcycle and race down the ramp, part of us hoping they’ll clear all of the buses and part of us secretly wishing they’ll crash spectacularly and walk away unscathed.

They feature actors with more range than Robert De Niro, plots with more twists than “Pulp Fiction.”

There was Kobe Bryant, before Tuesday night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks, a twinkle in his eye as he described watching via a Web cam hookup as his daughter took her first steps Monday. This was the same Bryant who was booed by the Bradley Center crowd and heckled about his pending sexual assault trial.

There were reporters from around the Midwest engaging Karl Malone in a discussion about whether the media storms are a cause or effect of controversy, until Gary Payton (who sees and hears all) loudly terminated the proceedings from across the room.

There are egos, colossal and bruised, on this team. While the superstars joke with and high-five each other as if last week’s war of words never transpired, the wrath of the coaches and big players comes down on the young role players during timeouts, with veterans coming over to offer consolation like high school girls cheering up their friend whose heart was broken at the homecoming dance.

“I know for a fact that if they recorded some of this [stuff] that went on in this locker room, we’d have the No. 1 show,” Shaquille O’Neal said. “ ‘The Osbournes’ wouldn’t ... come on. ‘Jackass’ wouldn’t come on. Nothing would come on.

“But it’s fun. We live in L.A., so there’s a lot of acting that goes on. As long as it’s fun, we’re gonna go along with it.

And as he told the reporter who got Malone going, “There is no chaos.”

At least not as long as the team is undefeated. And the Lakers still are, pacing the NBA with a 4-0 record, after yet another game with six players scoring in double figures.

They let Michael Redd go for 18 points in the third quarter, 36 in all. They fell behind by 10 points in the second half. They missed 15 of their first 30 free throws.

Bryant, playing on the same surgically repaired knee that kept him out of most of the exhibition games and the season opener, came close to shooting the Lakers out of it before he shot them back in it.

And after it was done the Lakers prevailed, grabbing a 113-107 victory out of Milwaukee’s hands.

One more challenge for the Lakers, a quick test of their ability to withstand adversity, and they passed.

“We talked a little bit about that before the game, didn’t we?” Jackson said. “This team needs to gut it out and win a couple of road games to have confidence in their ability to perform under pressure, behind and things like that.”

The players said they knew this would be the result.

“With our team, especially with us four on the floor, we just play basketball,” Payton said. “We don’t go over like, ‘Ohhh, we’re scared.’ It ain’t none of that. We just know that if we put our ‘D’ into it and we suck it up, we can play basketball games.”

One play summed it up, one play in which each of the Fantastic Four got his hands on the ball. It started with the Lakers up by two, less than 80 seconds remaining in the game, and Buck forward Tim Thomas isolated against Malone, with Thomas waving off his teammates to go at the 40-year-old alone.

“Whenever a guy challenges you like that, I don’t care who you are, how old you are, you’ve got to do something about it,” Malone said.

“I knew he wanted to score. He didn’t want to pass.”

As Thomas went up, Malone got him with his oldest trick, the slap-down to knock the ball loose.

“After all these years, those young ones still don’t know about it,” Malone said.

The Lakers got the ball to Payton, who pushed it upcourt and then passed to Bryant. Bryant left a pass for the hard-charging O’Neal, who slammed it home. Foul, and one free throw, game over.

But it wasn’t the end of the story. The buzzer never is with these guys. How would O’Neal react to Bryant taking 22 shots, several coming outside the regular offense?

Just fine. No eye-rolling, no insinuations.

“Obviously, his leg is feeling better,” O’Neal said. “He took some tough shots and he hit ‘em! [Yes, the usually robotic O’Neal actually warranted an exclamation point.] He gave me a nice pass coming down the middle. He’s getting his game back. These last three games, he’s played good. You can’t ask for nothing else.

“He took two tough forced shots. You don’t mind two forced shots. You mind 10 and 15. But these last three games, he’s playing good.”

He was asked a series of questions that could have led him to bash Bryant -- “Like the way it’s going right now? As far as the balance goes in the offense? You’re fine with it? No matter what? Even if you’re the third, fourth fifth guy?” -- and he didn’t bite.

“Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, no matter what. Yeah, that’s fine,” he said.

For now. Because the Lakers are undefeated. For now. But do you really believe the drama’s over?

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