No drama for Lakers in stunner

PHOENIX — There, that wasn’t so tough.

In 48 minutes of basketball, the Lakers managed to beat back an off-season of chaos, an awkward training camp, rampant trade speculation from every possible angle, the specter of a nine-time All-Star leaving at any moment, and the prospect of a nine-time championship coach leaving after this season.

Oh yeah, they also beat the Phoenix Suns, 119-98, in a stunning victory Friday at US Airways Center.

It was as unexpected as it gets, a team already teetering in a young season, the microphones and cameras feasting on every morsel of discord, and the Lakers answering with a resounding victory, leading by as many as 33 points.

Surprise, surprise.

And to think they did it without Lamar Odom, with the weight of the franchise on their shoulders, after a ragged showing against Houston three nights earlier, in a place that had been anything but kind to them over the last few years.

It was over before the third quarter ended, the Lakers taking a 90-61 lead on a dunk by Ronny Turiaf with 1:42 left in the quarter, the tension transferring directly from the Lakers to a booing Suns crowd that expected nothing short of a romp in their home opener.

They got a romp, for sure.

It got so bad for Phoenix that reporters began diving into record books to find the Suns’ worst home loss -- 37 points, twice, each time against the Lakers (October 1985 and December 2000).

Kobe Bryant had 16 points, 11 rebounds and four assists, and Vladimir Radmanovic had a team-high 19 points, making all four of his three-point attempts. Derek Fisher had 14 points on seven-for-nine shooting, and Andrew Bynum had 14 points on seven-for-10 shooting and 13 rebounds.

“We need wins like this to kind of get it to another notch,” Bryant said. “We have to win like this, where we kind of gut it out, play hard and have a big win on the road. It shows that we have a lot of will.”

The Lakers’ reserves scored 67 points, and the Lakers’ defense, maligned for the better part of the last three seasons, stood strong against the league’s most potent offense over the same stretch of time.

That the victory came against Phoenix, predicted by some to win the NBA championship, was enough of a surprise. That it came in an arena where the Lakers had lost 12 of the last 13 times only added to the shock value.

“I don’t like the word you use, ‘shocking,’ ” Coach Phil Jackson said. “Remarkable is a good word to use if you want to change your wording a little bit. It was a remarkable thing to have happen, especially when you look at scheduling. You don’t expect something like this to happen.”

Who could forget that the Lakers were 0-3 here in last season’s playoffs, part of their meek five-game ouster in the first round? And who wouldn’t remember the Lakers’ 121-90 loss here in Game 7 of the 2006 playoffs, the worst Game 7 loss in team history?

Beforehand, Bryant said the Suns had gotten “under our skin” with all the mounting playoff losses, and Jackson used a reference that required visions of cul-de-sacs and elm trees.

“They’re neighbors that haven’t really built a fence, so you don’t really like them that much,” Jackson said, smiling.

Suns Coach Mike D’Antoni wasn’t smiling in the final few minutes, particularly after Jackson called a timeout immediately after a mandatory Phoenix timeout with 4:45 to play and the Lakers ahead, 111-81. D’Antoni and Jackson exchanged words, with D’Antoni reminding Jackson the teams will play three more times this season.

“You mean the eight minutes he took over there to explain maybe one play that he probably didn’t run? Yeah, I was pretty upset,” D’Antoni said. “I thought he disrespected our players. But he likes to play mind games, and that’s fine. He might want to try to do it in playoff time when we bust them every year. We have them three more times. . . . That’s fine.”

Said Jackson: “I think he thought I was trying to showboat. When you have a mandatory timeout coming in a minute and a half or something like that, just get them out of the way so we don’t have to endure those four-minute timeouts on ESPN.”

--

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

--

ON THE WEB

* The purple-and-gold blogging Kamenetzky brothers will be occasionally traveling with the Lakers this season. Brian was in Phoenix last night. To read his views on the game, go to https://lakersblog.latimes.com/.