After a Season in Which They Did Almost Everything Right, Tonight at Staples Center, the Lakers Suddenly Have . . . EVERYTHING TO LOSE

Bill Buckner. Bucky Dent. Balloons on the ceiling.

The 1951 Dodgers. The 1964 Phillies. The 1994 SuperSonics.

Greg Norman versus Nick Faldo.

Jean Van de Velde versus Carnoustie.

The Houston Oilers versus Frank Reich.

And now . . .

The 1999-2000 Lakers?

All season long, with 67 wins and a 19-game winning streak and a .909 winning percentage since the All-Star break, our heroes danced around the fringes of sports history.

Tonight at Staples Center, they could plop right down in the middle of it.

With a splat that will be remembered forever.

If the Lakers lose to the Sacramento Kings in the fifth and deciding game of their first-round playoff series, it will be the biggest sports choke ever.

Not that it’s going to happen, of course.

This story is conjecture. It’s fantasy. The headline should read, “Wolf! Wolf!”

The Lakers are not going to lose.

If for no other reason than there’s so much to lose.

Shaquille O’Neal, with years of jeers on the line, won’t let them.

Glen Rice, with millions in free-agent money on the line, won’t let them.

NBC, with an entire month of programming at risk, won’t let them.

Phil Jackson will figure out a scheme. Kobe Bryant will invent a shot. Ron Harper will call a play. Robert Horry will steal a pass. A.C. Green will show up.

Away from that college gym up north, Chris Webber will be slower, Jon Barry will be stiffer, stuntman Vlade Divac will be less believable.

And, of course, Jason Williams will be Jason Williams, which is all the Lakers really need in the first place.

For the fourth time this week, I’ll say it loud enough to be heard in every tattoo parlor in Northern California, by every one of those fans Jackson lovingly referred to as “rednecks”:

The Lakers may not win the NBA championship, but they are certainly not going to lose to these guys, period.

Keeping an entire town on edge tonight, however, is that question mark.

If they lose?

The same common sense applying to a Laker victory would also define the enormousness of that loss.

It would be the biggest choke in the history of sports.

And it might not even be debatable.

A team with a league-best 67 wins and one of the top 10 regular seasons in NBA history.

Against a team that won 44 games and finished eighth in the Western Conference.

A team with the league’s most valuable player, O’Neal, its best young player, Bryant, and its best postseason coach, Jackson.

Against a team with only one player who might make the Laker starting lineup, Webber, and a coach, Rick Adelman, who is only slightly better known than some of Phil Jackson’s assistants.

Before these playoffs, the Lakers had won 54 of 69 games against the Kings since they moved to Sacramento.

Then the Lakers, at home, won the first two games of this five-game series.

Then they led by five points at the start of the fourth quarter of Game 3 in Sacramento.

And from there . . .

The Lakers have careened to the precipice of a cliff overlooking a dark expanse that can best be described as bottomless.

The Lakers lose tonight, the entire league will disappear before the memories do.

This cannot be compared to an old-time baseball team blowing a pennant in the last weeks of the season.

Because, after all, that was against the league’s second-best team.

The Kings aren’t the league’s second-best anything.

This cannot be compared to a golfer blowing a late lead in a big tournament.

Because, after all, that golfer is eventually surpassed by a tournament champion.

Even if the Kings beat the Lakers, they aren’t winning any championship.

This can also not be compared to a football team blowing a big lead late in a big game.

Because, after all, that is only one game.

If the Lakers lose tonight, they will have blown three consecutive games.

Even the best NBA analogies don’t work here.

One can be found right down the street, in the infamous “balloon game,” when the 55-win Lakers lost Game 7 of the 1969 NBA championships to the aging, fourth-place Boston Celtics at the Forum.

Many remember, the Lakers were so confident of victory, owner Jack Kent Cooke filled the Forum ceiling with celebratory balloons that were scheduled to be released after the final buzzer.

The enraged Celtics took the air out of it all with a 108-106 victory.

But then again, that was for a title.

The Lakers and Kings are still a dozen steps away.

The closest analogy, perhaps, involves the 1993-94 Seattle SuperSonics, who won a league-best 63 games . . . then lost a five-game series to the 42-win Denver Nuggets in the first round.

Yes, those SuperSonics also won the first two games of that series. And, of course, they lost the final game at home.

So it’s close.

Scoreboards around the league still replay video of Denver’s Dikembe Mutombo on his back underneath the basket after that Game 7, flailing his arms and legs in delighted disbelief.

One could imagine Chris Webber doing the same thing tonight.

But the Nuggets only beat a good team.

The Kings would be beating a great one.

A great upset. A great shock.

The greatest choke.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.