With It Tense, Jackson Is Focused on Present

If you thought the Lakers were ready to panic after losing 19 of their first 30 games, think again.

“We’re either as good as we were when we won three championships or else we weren’t any good when we won,” Coach Phil Jackson said after Friday’s practice at El Segundo. “After playing, what, 40 or 50 games in playoff style against the rest of this league? Everybody kind of sets up what they are going to do, as far as a pattern to beat the champs. When that pattern is established everybody copies it.”

So instead of making .500 an immediate goal, Jackson is simply trying to get the Lakers to “take it one game at a time.”

“We just want to get to the new year,” he said. “We’re just saying that we refuse to lose that 20th game, instead of trying to start over again.... What I’m trying to do is take away the process of looking and saying, ‘If we can get back to.... ‘ Well, to get back to .500 is a long ways off. That could be two months off.

“That’s not what it’s about. It’s about starting today and playing from today on.”

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Although the Lakers were upbeat following Friday’s workout, they lacked the swagger they had three months ago.

“I think we were in a definite state of denial for a period of time,” forward Rick Fox said. “Our championships over the last three years [may] have meant something to all of us individually and collectively as a group, [but] they mean nothing to our opponents this year.

“Every year is a new start, so when you lose to teams for whatever reason ... we had [an excuse] to fall back on, whether it’s injuries to suspensions. We got caught into that. When we got all back together again, the losses then became, ‘Oh, that’s just Golden State’ or, ‘That’s just so-and-so.’

“Now we’re off of denial and we understand that we have a long, long way to go.”

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Samaki Walker did not practice because of tonsillitis and did not travel with the team to Denver for tonight’s game against the Nuggets.

Walker will also miss Sunday’s game against Toronto at Staples Center.

“It’s too bad for Samaki,” Jackson said of Walker, who had eight points and nine rebounds in the Lakers’ loss to Sacramento on Wednesday. “He was just starting to play well for us.”

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TONIGHT

at Denver, 6 PST, Channel 9

Site -- Pepsi Center.

Radio -- KLAC (570), KWKW (1330), KIRN (670).

Records -- Lakers 11-19, Nuggets 6-22.

Record vs. Nuggets (2001-02) 3-1.

Update -- Denver has lost eight consecutive games, three of those at home. Juwan Howard is coming off a 30-point effort in a loss to the Clippers on Dec. 21. Although the Lakers rank 23rd in the league in shooting percentage, they’re ninth in assists with 22.43 a game.