The Jazz comes to shove, so Lakers must push themselves

Exactly 306 days after their last playoff game, the Lakers begin anew, their first step into the corridor of redemption coming today at noon against the Utah Jazz.

If 10 months seems like forever ago, the Lakers think so too, ready to shove their 39-point loss to Boston in Game 6 of last season’s NBA Finals that much further into the past.

They went 65-17 in the regular season and won the Western Conference by a whopping 11 games, but now these things actually have meaning, the Lakers promising they are ready for the elbows, forearms and whatever else the physically driven Jazz throws at them in a best-of-seven series.

“We’re all in shape, feel strong. Everybody spends enough time in there,” forward Lamar Odom said, motioning to the weight room. “We’re prepared for it, to rebound the basketball and defend these guys. We’re looking forward to it.”

Looking forward to the Jazz?

The same team that pushed them to six games in the West semifinals last season, the Lakers escaping from Salt Lake City with a 108-105 Game 6 victory only after Mehmet Okur and Deron Williams missed three-point attempts in the final five seconds?

Even Kobe Bryant admitted that the 48-win Jazz as an eighth-seeded team seemed ridiculous.

“At the start of the season, if you said that this was going to be a one-eight matchup, I probably would have looked at you like you were crazy,” he said.

This isn’t quite the same Jazz though.

Power forward Carlos Boozer missed 44 games because of a strained tendon in his left knee and hasn’t had the same scoring pop since returning. Okur might be sidelined today because of a strained right hamstring sustained last Monday against the Clippers.

Injuries aside, Utah went a thoroughly unremarkable 2-18 on the road against teams that made the playoffs. The Jazz also went 2-7 down the stretch, including an unpardonable home loss to a Golden State team that suited up only seven healthy players.

The headline in the Salt Lake Tribune after that one: “Hitting Bottom.” And that was only eight days ago.

Still, the Lakers have already shrugged off Utah Coach Jerry Sloan’s assertion that his team’s chances in the series looked “pretty bleak.”

They’re expecting plenty of contact, much like last season’s series in which the Jazz committed 175 fouls.

“We don’t expect this series to be any different,” Bryant said.

Lakers Coach Phil Jackson even took the time to mention on Saturday that Utah’s Williams, who stands 6 feet 3, delivered a “good body shot” to the 7-foot Andrew Bynum on Tuesday in the lane in the regular-season finale between the teams.

Indeed, many teams tried to outmuscle the Lakers this season, with limited success. It’ll be that much harder now that Bynum is back after missing 32 games because of a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee.

Ready or not, here comes the Jazz. The Lakers think they can handle it.

“I grew up playing the park. Nobody was there to call a foul,” Odom said. “I don’t think we mind as a team. That’s what we expect.

“We’re a team that likes to be pushed. It just makes us better. I think that was everybody’s answer all year with us, to play physical, and we had a pretty good year.”

--

Etc.

Reserve guard Jordan Farmar did not practice Saturday because of tendinitis in his right foot. He will be a game-time decision. . . . How much would Utah be affected without Okur, who averaged 17 points and 7.7 rebounds and was the team’s top three-point shooter at 44.6%? “He obviously stretches the floor for them,” Bryant said. “He’s a big strength for them.” . . . The Lakers will have the 29th, 42nd and 59th selections in the June draft. Their middle pick is from Charlotte as part of a 2004 trade involving Kareem Rush.

--

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com