Lakers Show They Will Be OK

Now we know.

The Lakers speculation today is a little less hypothesis, a little more theory, even if it isn’t quite ready to be a law.

Not too long ago, the Laker-Spur games were a chance to gauge how each team would fare when they met in the playoffs -- which they did in five of the last six seasons. Friday night was a test of whether the Lakers can even reach the playoffs this year.

They’ll get there. The way they play at home will be enough to beat most of the teams that come to Staples Center.

It just wasn’t enough to beat the Spurs, who left with a 105-96 victory.

But stat lines such as 24 points, 11 rebounds and four assists for Lamar Odom will lead to wins.

So will Kobe Bryant’s continued trips to the free-throw line, where he made another 11 of 13 tries Friday night.

And there are enough bad teams out there that the Lakers will be able to rack up victories at home and scrounge a few on the road in some combination that adds up to 45. They’ll find a way, just as they found a way to make this game competitive.

This was an early buzz test as well. If a Friday night game against a top team such as the Spurs couldn’t take on the feel of a Big Event, then we might as well TiVo the next seven weeks of the season and skip ahead to the Christmas game against Miami. You know L.A., if it ain’t happenin’, people ain’t comin’.

The fans seem to be a little hesitant, waiting for a little proof that it’s safe to believe. But after the Lakers stayed with the Spurs in the first quarter, the crowd bought into it. The fans roared when the Lakers were within six in the final two minutes, but neither the noise nor Bryant’s 12 fourth-quarter points could get it done.

How can the fans know what to expect when even the coach isn’t quite sure when he’ll know what to expect from his team?

“We’re hoping that it’s a short amount of time,” Rudy Tomjanovich said. “We’re going to have some growing pains and things like that. It’ll take some time.”

Until then, the Lakers will show the multiple personalities they’ve put on display in the first three games -- from the unselfishness in the opener to the cluelessness the next night in Utah, then an abundance of one-on-one play in the first half against San Antonio.

First Caron Butler, then Odom and finally Bryant tried to beat the Spurs off the dribble, with varying degrees of success. It wasn’t a match for the teamwork of the Spurs, who led by 12 at halftime.

The Lakers couldn’t find a way to chop down the lead even after Tim Duncan went to the bench with his fourth personal foul midway through the third quarter. Tomjanovich chose that time to give Bryant his first rest of the night.

The Spurs’ lead remained in double digits until the middle of the fourth quarter, when Bryant asserted himself and scored eight consecutive points. Odom had carried them for much of the way. But again, his game and Bryant’s didn’t complement each other’s. When one had it going, the other seemed to disappear. The net result of their event worked out well enough, with the two combining for 52 of the Lakers’ points.

Until the Lakers figure themselves out, Spur Coach Gregg Popovich has a pretty good idea about how to prepare for them.

“No matter what, you know that Kobe’s probably going to be involved, sooner or later,” he said.

Smart guy, that Popovich.

As for his squad, it’s the usual group of faces that have come through Staples Center the last couple of years.

“Same boring team,” Popovich said.

Although it’s still strange to see Robert Horry in that black uniform.

Unfortunately for the Lakers, they know have a bunch of strangers in the gold uniforms. Only four players have stayed on the team since Horry last played in L.A. in the 2003 playoffs.

That could make it a lot easier for him to play against them now. Last year, some Lakers thought the reason Horry shot so poorly against them in the Lakers’ six-game victory over the Spurs in the playoffs was that Horry couldn’t bring himself to slay his old buddies.

Horry was four for 17 (two for 12 on three-pointers) in the Laker series after making 16 of 26 shots and six of 10 three-pointers in the first round against Memphis.

“During the playoffs, it was a very emotional time for me,” Horry conceded last night.

Strangely, there was a lot more nostalgia for the old Lakers on the Spurs’ end of the hallway than in the locker room with the purple and gold carpet.

Popovich bemoaned the loss of a superpower, even if it did enhance the rest of the conference’s chances of making it to the NBA Finals.

“I really did feel like it was the breakup of the Soviet Union,” Popovich said. “All of a sudden nobody knew how to act. Everything was thrown into chaos, so to speak.

“The rest of us, the Dallases and Utahs and Minnesotas and San Antonios and Sacs all look at each other like, ‘Hey, it’s finally going to be one of us.’ That kind of thing. I guess all the fans enjoy that and that kind of thing.

“Speaking for myself, I wish [the Lakers] were all together as the team that you always had to go through to get it done.”

It’s the Spurs who are the team to beat now, and they look better than ever.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.