Their date with destiny should come June 18 It’s all about June for Lakers

It is Jan. 2, a Friday night at Staples Center. The Lakers are playing the Utah Jazz, and we all know what that means.

Another dress rehearsal for June 18.

That would be, of course, the most likely date for Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

It could be a few days earlier, of course, but that’s the last possible day listed and the NBA seems to have mastered the art of stretching things out. More games, more drama-building, more TV market share. David Stern doesn’t make all that money for nothing.

Sometimes, you feel like the people most understanding of that are his referees, but that’s another story for another day.

Suffice to say that, since Vegas has action for everything else, rob the piggy bank and get as much down as you can on Game 7 being June 18.

In other seasons, of course, a Lakers-Utah matchup would mean different things, varying story lines. New players to test. New offenses to run. A sulking veteran here. An unruly rookie there. Jerry Sloan’s rigid defense against Phil Jackson’s triangle.

Less so this season. This is the winter-spring of our Lakers tinkering for the playoffs. More specifically, for the Boston Celtics.

In the East, the hated, dreaded leprechauns are off and running at 29-5 and only Cleveland, at 27-5, and Orlando at 26-7, seem interested in disrupting the inevitable. If anything, this season’s Celtics are better than last season’s, and that group sent the Lakers home and humbled in a Game 6 rout.

In the West, after Friday night’s 113-100 successful tinkering against the Jazz, the Lakers, at 26-5, are starting to look like Jeff Gordon, about to lap the field.

To be sure, the Lakers can’t consciously treat the rest of the regular season like that, even if they know, deep down, that a spot in the Finals, and probably a Game 7, is all but scripted for them. They are a marvelous team. So are the Celtics.

Lakers Coach Phil Jackson talked Friday about the need to play well at home now, because the March schedule is packed with tough road games. He talked about the East, and how LeBron James’ Cavaliers and the Magic have shown their stuff.

The implication was that lots of things can still happen to disrupt that Lakers-Celtics destiny.

He has to say that, probably has to believe it.

But barring broken legs or national famine, this season looks, smells and feels like a Lakers-Celtics grand finale. Yes, another one.

It also looks, smells and feels like it will take the full seven games to settle it, since the Lakers are just that much better than last season. Simply the addition of Andrew Bynum is enough to see that.

The regular-season hors d’oeuvres are tasty, but limited. The Lakers beat the Celtics on Christmas Day in Staples. And the Celtics get to play host to them on Feb. 5.

That one’s like the Vegas bet on a Game 7 final. Bet the house on the Celtics -- for no other reason than that seems to be the natural order of things this season.

The Lakers led the Jazz by 20 points much of the first half and went into the locker room ahead, 57-43.

The Jazz is missing star forward Carlos Boozer with a knee injury, but this is still a playoff team, coached by the hard-nosed Sloan in his 21st season on the bench. One of the great stats that Sloan carries is that, since he took over as coach of the Jazz in December of 1988, there have been 225 coaching changes in the NBA, including 11 by the Lakers.

Sloan, now 66, had an outstanding career as a player, mostly with the Chicago Bulls during Jackson’s era with the New York Knicks.

“I’ve got lots of stories about him, but I’m not gonna tell any,” Jackson said. “One thing for sure, you had to watch carefully, because if you’d drive, he’d be right there to take a charge.”

Sloan’s innate stubbornness was in evidence in the third period, as his team disrupted the ease of the Lakers’ playoff tinkering with a run that cut the lead to 67-64.

But soon, it was back to Kobe Bryant floating and slashing and Pau Gasol sniping away. Bryant had 12 points in the period to rouse his lifeless team, and Gasol added six. The Lakers went from bored to bouncy.

Same thing in the last period. The Jazz went on a run to cut it to 87-79. Back in came Kobe and Pau, and with a Bryant basket and two free throws, it was back to 91-81. It even got to 97-93, but Gasol dropped in two free throws and Trevor Ariza finished things off with a steal and three-point play and a then scrambling rebound basket.

In the end, Bryant had 40 points, Gasol 21 with 11 rebounds and six assists and the Lakers with a perfect night of keeping things rolling toward that NBA final.

When it really matters, the lessons learned, the tinkering done, on a Friday night in January, against a tough-skinned Utah team coached by a touch-skinned guy, will be invaluable.

On June 18.

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bill.dwyre@latimes.com