Lakers Have It Set to Stun

The road to redemption, for a player, coach and franchise, begins today.

For Kobe Bryant, it’s a chance to show he can win a playoff series without you-know-who.

For Phil Jackson, a chance to prove he can win without the big names -- Michael, Scottie and, again, you-know-who.

For the Lakers, an opportunity to return to playoff prominence, with the lowered expectations of first-round victories taking the place of confetti-littered parade routes.

It starts by trying to beat the Phoenix Suns, a problem around here ever since Shaquille O’Neal was traded two years ago.

The Lakers begin the best-of-seven series with an air of confidence, Jackson cracking up players by again inserting scenes of “Inside Man” into game film to hammer home the importance of getting the ball down low to Kwame Brown, Lamar Odom or whomever happens to be in the post.

Their 1-7 record against the Suns the last two seasons aside, the Lakers’ late-season 11-3 run has made them a trendy upset special in some circles, even more so when held up next to the Suns’ 12-11 late-season fade.

“I agree with that,” Laker guard Smush Parker said. “There’s definitely going to be an upset. The Lakers will beat Phoenix. We just feel confident going up against Phoenix. We know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got Chris Mihm back. Kwame’s playing the best basketball he has all season. We just feel good going into this series. We just have confidence in ourselves.”

Parker wasn’t suggesting a championship run, as Sacramento’s Ron Artest recently did, but the self-belief has trickled down from Jackson, who has been there, done that, and never lost in the first round in 14 other seasons as an NBA coach.

Many would claim that getting this far beat expectations for the season, but Jackson isn’t the only one accustomed to breezing though first-round series. Before last season’s 34-48 meltdown, Bryant had never failed to witness the second round, going a pristine 8-0 in first-round series.

“We’re comfortable,” said Bryant, who averaged 42.5 points in four games against the Suns. “We feel real fine. I think part of it is because we’re so young. Nobody’s really been in the playoffs -- they don’t really know any better, just go out there and play. The atmosphere around here is very upbeat.”

Meanwhile, in Phoenix, where the temperatures are already in the low 90s, the home team feels the burn of disrespect despite winning the Pacific Division and becoming the second-seeded team in the Western Conference.

Most-valuable-player candidate Steve Nash has already rung the bell of team unity, noting aloud how the general public is again questioning the Suns’ small-ball approach -- “Whatever. We’re too small and whatever. It means nothing to us,” he said -- although the Suns did flop last season in a five-game loss to San Antonio in the West finals.

The Lakers have talked about the importance of stopping Nash -- Parker gets first crack at it -- and the need to step out on the Suns’ constellation of three-point shooters who pushed them to an NBA-record 837 three-pointers.

But the Lakers, a middle-of-the-pack team defensively -- 15th this season -- couldn’t stop the Suns when Nash was in the lineup. The Suns averaged a league-best 108.4 points this season, and 111.7 against the Lakers in the three games Nash played.

“Some of the staff members that I have were actually saying maybe it’s better to play San Antonio because it’s a conventional team and we’ve had some success against San Antonio in the past,” Jackson said Saturday.

Just the same, the Lakers have been rising almost as much as the Suns in recent weeks, averaging 106.6 points in eight games this month, an obvious improvement from the 94.1 points they averaged in November.

The triangle offense has been much more shapely for the Lakers, as Odom and Brown have discovered comfort zones.

“Odom is playing with the flow now. He appears to me to be much more comfortable,” said team consultant and triangle guru Tex Winter. “Kwame is a different player than he was even the first month of the season.

“We hoped by the time that the playoffs started that we were in them. We knew the guys would be a whole lot more comfortable by then. Repetition, repetition. It’s just a question of time.”

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Keys to the series

Mike Bresnahan’s keys for the Lakers against Phoenix

1. Stop Steve Nash: It’s simple. If the Lakers contain him, they have a chance. If not, they’re engaged in a track meet for four, maybe five games.

2. Establish an inside presence: The best way to slow the Suns is with a methodical, reliable post game, exactly what San Antonio did to crush them in five games in last season’s Western Conference finals. Seeing as how the Lakers don’t have Tim Duncan, Kwame Brown will have to be their go-to guy on the block.

3. Hope the Suns aren’t hot: The Suns shot a remarkable 39.9% from three-point range and averaged 10.2 three-pointers per game this season, sure signs of a quick series if they maintain those numbers.