Fast Times Ahead on This Ride-Share

Now this was a Star Wars prequel.

A long time ago and far away, before the game’s most talented players came together to form one of its most frustrating teams, there was a pass. There was a pick. There was the hitching up of shorts. There was defense.

A long time ago, on separate teams and under studious coaches, the Lakers learned the game of basketball. There were no shoe contracts, no commercials, nothing but perimeter passes, give-and-gos, and dirty little hands stuck in dirty little faces.

On Tuesday night, then became now.

Before 17,505 at the Great Western Forum who didn’t even have to stand in a long line with oddballs dressed in capes, the Lakers showed what it must have been like before they created this empire.

It was brainy, basic and breathtaking. It was truly an event, this 110-98 victory over the Houston Rockets in Game 2 of the first round of the NBA playoffs. It was a not just a victory but a roundhouse, surely enough to stun the old guys for the rest of what is now looking like a short series.

All of you who picked the Rockets to win Game 2 after the Lakers got a little lucky in winning Game 1? It’s OK if you are now picking the Lakers to sweep.

I am. The sort of basketball--sharing, scrounging, stifling--can and should be repeated later this week in Houston.

Bring on San Antonio. Uh, or Minnesota. On a night the Lakers didn’t stumble, it is important to note that the Spurs did.

Bring on Utah. Uh, or Sacramento. In the type of series where these new-era Lakers almost always lose one game due to inattention, it was the Jazz which has lost a game first.

It has been less than a week, but of the three teams favored to emerge from the Western Conference to the NBA finals, who would have thought that the Lakers would be looking the most, well, mature.

“We want this game real bad,” Kobe Bryant said beforehand, in a locker room with a quiet tension found in some cinder-block cubbyhole before a prize fight.

Outside, Coach Kurt Rambis issued his nightly challenge.

“We’re still not playing anywhere near as well as we’re capable of playing . . . and all that other stuff I’ve been saying every night out here,” he said.

As of the first quarter, he can put a sock in it. For 12 splendid minutes, they played precisely as well as they’re capable of playing.

It was Shaquille O’Neal starting off with a dunk. Then Shaq throwing to J.R. Reid for a layup. Then Shaq throwing to Kobe Bryant for a slam dunk.

Rambis had obviously reminded the Lakers where this offense must begin. They obviously are finally buying it. In 13 of the first 17 times the Lakers had the ball, Shaq touched it. Nine of those times, the Lakers scored.

None of those times, Glen Rice scored. In fact, the Lakers’ leading scorer in Game 1 didn’t even take a shot until there was 2:42 left in the quarter.

Of course, it was a jump shot. Of course, it was a pass from Kobe. And of course, he made it.

“Shaq is the hub of our offense,” Rambis said afterward, words that will hearten the big lug. “Any time we can get him the ball, teams have to make adjustments. He has said, and he has shown, that he can pass the ball around and make things happen.”

Shaq’s most impressive number? It was not his game-leading 28 points. It was his game-leading seven assists.

The most-impressive numbers in the quarter? It was not the Lakers’ 31 points and 60.9% shooting. It was the Rockets’ 12 points and 23.5% shooting, the fewest points the Lakers have given up in any quarter this year.

Advantage, Rambis. It was written here that the interim coach’s resume needed to show some playoff adjustments before he could be considered for a permanent position.

Put that first quarter in bold. He adjusted the defense to stop Charles Barkley. Sir Never-Won-Anything had 12 points in the final quarter of Game 1, but only two points in the first quarter Tuesday.

“They kind of took us out of the game early,” Barkley said.

No, Rambis did not throw two people at Barkley at all times. No, he did not run in Sean Rooks and Travis Knight and everybody but Shaq’s bodyguard to beat him up.

He approached it as he did it Sunday, but with a twist. Reid and Robert Horry alternated playing Barkley one-on-one, but at the last minute, somebody else would stick in a hand. Sometimes it was Shaq. Sometimes it was Kobe.

Reid and Horry were alone, but they were never alone. And neither was the irritated Barkley. Which is what Rambis has been trying to teach these guys for weeks.

“What I keep saying in the locker room is, just keep covering everyone’s backs,” Rambis said. “They know. They now have the confidence that four other guys will be there to help them.”

It also helped that Bryant, again, treated Scottie Pippen as if he had been a total creation of Michael Jordan. Not one basket in seven tries from the field? Only three points on foul shots?

“I don’t think you’ve seen our whole team like this during the regular season,” said Derek Fisher after his second consecutive sparkling game.

It felt like nobody has seen them like this in years. It was strange. It was fun. It was two thumbs up, with one more to go.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected]