Now It’s a Chance to Send a Message

Kobe Bryant worked the scoreboard clock during a scrimmage, Lamar Odom and Kwame Brown wore whistles around their necks as they refereed their teammates, and the Lakers breezed through practice Monday, a day after clinching a playoff spot.

There’s still work to be done, in determining whether they’ll play Phoenix or San Antonio, but the Lakers took a step back to analyze their chances in the playoffs, even acknowledging that Phoenix seems more eager to play them rather than Sacramento in the first round.

Few basketball experts pegged the Lakers to play beyond April 19, but with at least four playoff games on the way, the Lakers are again turning to an us-against-the-world theme.

“I don’t think there’s too many people out there expecting us to do any damage really,” Bryant said. “That’s fine by us.... We felt like we had some good pieces all along. It was just a matter of us evolving and jelling together. We’ve been doing that as of late. We can still get better.”

Bryant, two days from winning his first scoring title, acknowledged feeling vindicated by the Lakers’ playing beyond the regular season.

“Just from hearing a lot of criticism, and people talking and saying that I couldn’t even get a team to the playoffs and stuff like that,” he said. “I use that as motivation and as fuel.... I just continue to drive forward and we as a team continue to drive forward and try to prove everybody wrong.”

It won’t be easy, even if Sacramento loses tonight to Seattle or the Lakers win Wednesday against New Orleans, which would mean drawing Phoenix instead of San Antonio, the lesser of two Western Conference heavies.

The Lakers succeeded in keeping alive Phil Jackson’s perfect record -- 15 playoff teams in as many NBA seasons coached -- although they face a new challenge: Jackson has never failed to get past the first round of the playoffs.

The Laker coach has already started floating out motivational bits, saying the Suns would rather play the Lakers than Sacramento. Phoenix rested starting guards Steve Nash and Raja Bell against the Lakers five days after coming back from a 17-point deficit to beat Sacramento by 13.

“It seemed like they played really hard against Sacramento, didn’t they?” Jackson said. “They came from 17 down, and that was the other opponent they have an option to play against. It would seem like they want to choose us.”

The Lakers beat the Suns on Sunday, 109-89, to clinch a playoff spot and stay a game ahead of eighth-place Sacramento. The Suns are locked into playing the seventh-place team from the West.

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Laker merchandise sales vaulted to the top of the league mainly because of an increase in the popularity of Bryant merchandise.

The Lakers were the third-most popular team, behind New York and Miami, the last time the league released sales figured in December.

Bryant’s jersey sales moved from fifth to fourth based on sales at nbastore.com and the NBA store in New York City. Miami guard Dwyane Wade, Cleveland forward LeBron James and Philadelphia guard Allen Iverson are the league’s top three jersey sellers.

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Jackson, on the lack of a battle for fifth place in the West: “The Clippers don’t want to move up in the standings, obviously.” ... Jackson provided a key to beating Phoenix, assuming the Lakers play the smallish Suns: “Kwame’s really the featured guy that we have against ... Phoenix because they have nobody interior that can guard him.”