It’s more than just a nice holiday story

In the 1988 movie “Scrooged,” Charles Dickens’ miserable central figure reappears as Bill Murray’s Frank Cross, a self-obsessed TV exec who awakens to proclaim Christmas as the time we all “act a little nicer . . . smile a little more . . . and are the people we always hoped we would be.”

If that’s the case, boy, have the Lakers been Scrooged!

Let’s just say no team ever needed a Yuletide season like the Lakers.

Six months ago, team officials were just hoping that the Lakers as we’ve known them would still exist on Christmas and that they’d still be working for them.

Six months later, Lakers officials awoke on Christmas to see their young team outgun the Phoenix Suns, the fastest guns in the West, with their 20-year-old center, Andrew Bynum, going for a career-high 28 points.

Of course, the Lakers are managing expectations on Bynum with a vengeance, so that around Staples Center people refer to him as “up and coming.”

“I don’t know if he’s up and coming,” said Phoenix Coach Mike D’Antoni, laughing through his pain. “He’s there.

“The guy [shoots] 11 for 13 with 15 rebounds [12 actually]. I hope he’s not up and coming.”

This version of “A Christmas Carol” is really different, with the self-obsessed central figure played, in a masterpiece of casting, by Kobe Bryant.

In this version, Kobe shows the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future what they did wrong. Then he awakens the next morning, throws open his window on a bright new day and says he loves everyone!

However, as for his plans beyond sundown, he says he’s only focusing on today.

Few teams live day to day, as the Lakers do, taking their signals from Bryant, to the extent he’s willing to signal anything at all.

As far as public perception goes, they’re just a pleasant surprise and Kobe is as pleasantly surprised as anyone else.

Doing the obligatory promo during ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” telecast, host Mike Tirico politely asked Bryant what he was still doing here.

“Two months ago, I think most of us thought you would have been traded, the Lakers would be struggling,” Tirico said. “Instead, you’re thriving, the Lakers are playing quite well, one of the top records in the NBA so far.”

Mind-blowing, isn’t it?

Well, depending on whom you ask.

Bryant gave the usual low-key answer, noting it was “about chemistry.”

It may be true, but no one ever saw chemistry like theirs.

At 17-10, two games out of first in the Pacific -- which Phoenix won by 19 games last season -- this was a test of the young Lakers’ ability to play with the big people.

“First of all, this is Christmas, right?” said D’Antoni before the game, minimizing his feud with Phil Jackson.

“I don’t have bad feelings toward men. He’s on my naughty list, but, nah . . . I’m not worried about him. I’m worried about Kobe.”

The Lakers passed their test. In the really bad news for D’Antoni, the Lakers have a lot more people to worry about than they used to.

Early as it may be, there’s no doubt the Lakers are bigger, deeper and more talented and, at the moment, the elite teams in the West aren’t as good as they were.

If this is exciting, the Lakers are playing down any excitement, which is professional and, perhaps, something more.

How could Bryant’s cooler-than-cool reaction signal anything other than his embarrassment at seeing the team he tried to ditch turn itself around?

Bryant did the “We just want to get better” number so many times after Tuesday’s game, he apologized for getting “Belichick-y on you guys,” alluding to the taciturn New England Patriots coach, Bill Belichick.

“We just want to get better,” Bryant said. “That’s my responsibility to this ballclub, continue to crack the whip. . . .

“[The victory] is good for us. We’re a young team and it’s good to have wins, for teams around the league to start looking around and looking at our team as being a strong team. But again for us, it’s one game. . . . I’m focused on one thing and one thing only. That’s winning a championship. I could care less about what happens Christmas Day.”

Actually, it’s great for the Lakers if he starts looking at them as being a strong team, but it’ll be a while, if ever, before he signs off on that.

It’s true. It was only one game in the 2007-08 season, which none of the Lakers ever expected to see.

--

mark.heisler@latimes.com