Basically, NBA Has a Lot to Prove

The early word on the NBA is “simple.”

Earl “the Pearl” Monroe once said: “Hoop is hoop. You either play it right, or you don’t.

“The game is about advancing the ball to the basket. The game is about the shortest distance between two points.”

Sounds simple, right?

Monroe scored more than 17,000 points. Got a championship ring too. So listen to the man. Heed.

Keep your eye on the teams that do the basic stuff.

And it helps if they can do those things without unnecessary drama.

The teams and players with Something To Prove will make it interesting this season -- has there ever been more emphasis on opening night than this year? -- but ultimately, they won’t be the ones wearing the rings.

Or, excuse me, belts.

Gotta love the Detroit Pistons, taking the floor in boxing-style belts to get their championship tokens.

And you have to love their chances of getting back to the Finals. Because after they took off those gaudy belts, they got right back to the approach that earned them: nasty, in-your-grill defense and a balanced offensive attack.

The Pistons held the Houston Rockets to 79 points. They limited Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady to a total of 25 points because they controlled the lane.

If the Pistons have any agenda, it’s because they are Overlooked NBA Champions. They rolled the Lakers right out of the Finals, but the breakup of the Laker triangle of Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and Phil Jackson took all the summer headlines. It’s as if the Pistons’ whole season was an alternate audio track on a DVD.

They shouldn’t worry. They’ll be heard from again. So will the Spurs, come June. They resolved their most pressing on-court need by getting three-point shooter Brent Barry, then knocked off any potential turmoil by signing Tony Parker to the big contract extension he sought.

So now he has $66 million coming his way (C’est bien, non?) and the Spurs have Tim Duncan, Parker and Manu Ginobili locked up through the rest of the decade.

No extension, no peace. Just check out Minnesota, where Latrell Sprewell is upset that his contract hasn’t been extended, so he’s making ridiculous statements such as: “Why would I want to help them win a title? They’re not doing anything for me.”

Sam Cassell wants an extension as well. That’s two too many agendas to allow the Timberwolves to take the next step after making the Western Conference finals for the first time.

You’d think that guys playing for contracts would produce monster seasons, the way Adrian Beltre did for the Dodgers in his free-agent walk year. Doesn’t work that way in the NBA.

Why would the players think logically when owners continue to make curious moves, such as the Golden State Warriors’ signing of our beloved Derek Fisher to his richest contract ever -- $37 million -- coming off his worst season in four years?

What about Golden State’s giving $41.6 million to Adonal Foyle or Dallas’ spending $73 million on Erick Dampier? And yet, next year, the owners will say the players make too much and order a lockout.

One guy who’s worth every bit of the $86-million extension he just signed is Utah’s Andrei Kirilenko. He hustles, blocks shots and is another smart piece in Coach Jerry Sloan’s offensive system that sliced and diced the Lakers on Wednesday night. The Jazz will be heard, loudly, come playoff time.

The Lakers will show up for playoff roll call, once they find their true level.

The Lakers won’t be as dominant as they were opening night and they won’t be as awful as they looked in Utah.

That might be the worst back-to-back scenario in the NBA: lose an hour while crossing time zones in flight, struggle, then face a disciplined team that makes you work for the entire 24-second clock while you’re struggling to get your breath in the high altitude.

Right now the Lakers are more about proving something instead of playing simple basketball. You know the story line in Lakerland, what’s at stake for Bryant and Jerry Buss.

On Tuesday, Bryant wanted to show he could pass, which produced some brilliant hoops before the home crowd on opening night, when he seemed intent on turning Chris Mihm into an All-Star. Bryant didn’t try to fight through the double-teams, the rest of the Lakers moved to the hoop and Bryant found them, so the Lakers had an easy victory over a lackluster Denver crew, whose only apparent goal is to get Coach Jeff Bzdelik fired as soon as possible.

The Lakers will get a real test tonight, at home after a day’s rest, against the Spurs.

On the other coast, O’Neal’s in Prove mode too. That’s why he had to wrap up his sore hamstring and play in the Heat’s opener in New Jersey on Wednesday and the home opener Thursday night. Can’t talk all that trash, can’t raise all those expectations and sell all those tickets in Miami without actually stepping on the court. Otherwise Buss and Bryant could say, “See ... that’s why we didn’t want his broken-down body around here anymore.”

Apparently, the Clippers want to prove they won’t be the worst team in the West. They won’t shoot 63%, as they did in rolling Seattle on Wednesday night, but if they keep playing so unselfishly they’ll win their share of games.

The best thing about rookie point guard Shaun Livingston? He knows what to do with the ball. He gets it to the right man at the right time, he shoots it when he’s open or around the hoop.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Sounds like winning basketball.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at: [email protected]. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.