Game 7 pressure is all on the Lakers

How the West Was un-Won, the saga continues.

Now, presenting the new trendy pick to come out of the Western Conference . . . the Denver Nuggets?

Oh, they’re not here yet?

Sorry.

The Nuggets were actually set to fly to Los Angeles early Saturday to practice at Staples Center, since they couldn’t shoot around before today’s 12:30 p.m. tipoff without waking at dawn, but we’ve had a schedule change.

The Western finals aren’t starting today. I know it’s hard to believe, but, instead, the Lakers have to play Houston again.

Not that this has been hard, but the Lakers will dream of Aaron Brooks for months, waking in a cold sweat, screaming, “HE’S YOURS! NO, HE’S YOURS!”

Talk about your fate changing.

Last spring’s stroll through the West seemed preordained, amid omens such as the Nuggets’ bus catching fire, and mechanical trouble obliging the San Antonio Spurs to sleep on their plane on the ground in New Orleans, trying to get here with 48 hours between series.

After winning the West by 11 games, this spring has been an ordeal, starting with what seemed like a two-week series against Utah, after playing the Jazz in the last game of the season.

Then came this pratfall against the Rockets, or as they’re now known, “America’s Team.”

This precipitated the Great Embarrassment Debate. Of course, the Lakers were, which they should have conceded, rather than pretend it was acceptable, making them look like dolts and/or suggesting they didn’t learn anything.

At least, I think they were. To spare them further whatever it is they’re feeling, we now call it “the E word.”

In the extremely bad news for the Lakers, who says whatever it is is over?

Even with the Rockets 13-point underdogs, it’s not Houston that has the problem.

Game 7s are different with room for error gone and pressure descending in waves . . . and that will all be on the Lakers.

The Rockets aren’t just playing with house money, it’s as if they hit a slot machine for $1 million at the airport on their way out of Las Vegas.

And, as the Lakers learned in Game 6, when effort was no longer the problem, they have matchup problems with the Rockets’ small lineup.

Derek Fisher would have enough trouble staying in front of Brooks, who’s 10 years younger and 50 pounds lighter, but that’s not the problem.

In the Lakers’ new scheme -- which they showed long ago they’re ill-suited for -- Fisher is supposed to push Brooks to one side, and funnel him into their big men.

Aside from the energy the Lakers put in at that end, if any, their best defenders are perimeter players, Fisher, Kobe Bryant and Trevor Ariza.

Andrew Bynum should be a force on defense but isn’t now, and they can only hope he’s out of his funk about not starting.

With Pau Gasol busy not guarding Luis Scola in Game 6, it was as if they were steering Brooks onto an open runway and clearing him for takeoff.

Appearances notwithstanding, the Lakers aren’t over yet. They won’t be underdogs against Denver, and shouldn’t be . . . assuming they get to play the Nuggets.

If things don’t work out for the Lakers, this will go down as the Season in Which Everything Almost Came Together.

I know, that was supposed to be last season, after their Learning Experience in the Finals, etc.

This was yet another Learning Experience -- for us, if not the Lakers -- showing what this team, still the game’s tallest, deepest and most talented, lacks in chemistry.

This team came together last season when Gasol’s arrival made the Lakers one of the longest, best ballhandling clubs in years, or ever.

Finishing 27-9 (23-5 in games Gasol played), going 12-3 against the West, they weren’t tested until their humiliation in the Finals, which was compounded by their lighthearted approach going into it, tra la, tra la.

Even in the Diva Days with Shaquille O’Neal, they had a second tier of veterans to remind O’Neal and/or Bryant to cut the crap: Fisher, Rick Fox, Robert Horry, Ron Harper, Brian Shaw, A.C. Green, Horace Grant.

For a former Lakers veteran’s perspective, Horry, their beloved “Big Shot Rob,” just told ESPN his favorites are Cleveland and Denver.

Coach Phil Jackson is now concerned about his young players’ psyches, snarling only in private.

Bryant and Fisher follow Jackson’s lead. Gasol and Lamar Odom are nice guys. The rest are the ones with the tender psyches.

Easing through this season, the Lakers seemed to have concluded it was OK to coast, as opposed to peaking now, like Woody Allen as Alvy Singer in “Annie Hall,” noting, “If I get too mellow, I ripen and then rot.”

It may still be worth it, if they ever learn anything from one of their Learning Experiences, and if they get Bynum back, as they got Jordan Farmar back.

Bynum’s arrival could make the Lakers so great, they can have any attitude they please.

Arrival, as in the breakouts that preceded both his knee injuries, isn’t the issue now. It’s survival, which means playing well enough to start -- which Bynum hasn’t done for more than three games in a row this postseason.

Having tempted fate as the Lakers have, local fans who believe in karma may want to stop reading here.

This isn’t Houston Coach Rick Adelman’s first Game 7 against the Lakers.

They beat his Kings in the memorable 2002 Western finals, which Sacramento might have won in five games, but for the luckiest bounce in Lakers history.

Trailing, 2-1, the Lakers came from 24 points behind to win Game 4, 100-99, after a wild scramble for a rebound that Vlade Divac batted out . . . to Horry, spotted up at the arc as if stationed there by the gods for his game-winning three.

Otherwise, the Kings lead, 3-1, going back home for Game 5.

For that reason and more, the Lakers will be the ones hoping today isn’t the day that what’s gone around comes around.

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mark.heisler@latimes.com