Lakers have a long way to go

On the bright side for the Lakers, the pressure seems to be off as far as expectations they’ll win 70 games.

Even with the team still on a 71-win pace, an uneasy breeze stirs in Lakerdom. Even Vic the Brick feels it, as he acknowledged in their dressing room before Wednesday’s game against Phoenix, wearing his trademark purple-and-gold striped poncho with the Lakers logo and his purple-and-gold fur hat.

Huge leads vanish. The young reserves are zinged for being wild. As if to show the problem is bigger than that, the starters no-show in Sacramento.

Not that the Lakers, themselves, are alarmed.

That’s the problem.

Even while acknowledging that they’ve been “inconsistent” -- nightly, it seems -- they’re sublimely confident in their superior talent, size and depth.

Here’s the bad news for the Lakers: They’re not inconsistent at all.

Compared with the all-heart Boston Celtics and the hard-nosed Cleveland Cavaliers, the Lakers don’t play very hard.

Compared with Boston, which is No. 2 in defense, and Cleveland, which is No. 1, the Lakers have turned into a target since their 7-0 start in which they gave up 87 points a game. In the next 14 games, they gave up an average of 103, a pace that would make them No. 26.

Of course, the Cavaliers’ talent level hardly matches that of the Lakers or Celtics.

The Celtics can’t match the Lakers’ size, talent level or depth. Defenders still cheat off Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins. Paul Pierce is shooting 40.5%, with Kevin Garnett down from last season’s 18.8 points and 54% to 16.3 and 52%.

On the other hand, the Celtics and Cavaliers throw everything they have out there every game.

With all the Lakers have and their, quote, burning desire to avenge last spring’s embarrassment, unquote, they may bring it for a quarter or two.

As opposed to being great, they look more like their first two Shaquille O’Neal-Kobe Bryant teams, which were also the biggest, baddest and most feared around, with sublime confidence in their superiority.

Those Lakers -- “the Lake Show” -- learned what youthful entitlement was worth in successive postseason debacles, with the venerable Utah Jazz beating them, 4-1, in 1997 and sweeping them the next spring, 4-0, in the Western Conference finals.

A humbled Nick Van Exel compared the Lakers to “project guys going against a bunch of guys who set pick-and-rolls.”

“We feel if we go out there and just lace up the shoes and run around and do the dunks . . . that we can win,” Van Exel said. “But it’s not like that.”

Or as Charles Barkley, then a Houston Rocket, put it, “Nobody can match Shaq. If the Lakers had their mental stuff together, nobody could touch them.

“But thank God, you’ve got to have brains.”

Even after Phil Jackson arrived in 1999 to mold the Lakers into three-time champions, they bore little resemblance to his hardworking Chicago teams.

The Lakers coasted through all three title defenses with O’Neal playing himself into shape. Nevertheless, he was Shaquille O’Neal, becoming a monster in the postseason who blotted out the sun.

Aside from Bryant and Derek Fisher, both demon workers, who on this Lakers team has done anything that entitles him to any attitude about anything?

Their new Boston-style defense depends on everyone covering for everyone else, as opposed to everyone waiting for the next time they get the ball.

If you get into the lane against Boston, you run into three Celtics and one is Garnett.

An equal-opportunity scourge, KG ripped into teammate Glen “Big Baby” Davis, who broke into tears on the bench during a recent win over Portland.

Jackson, content to let events unfold over the season, has been as serene as ever, even after the Lakers gave up 110 points and hung on to beat an eight-man Suns squad.

Reporter: “Do you feel you’re saying the same stuff after every game -- we played OK, Pau [Gasol] was great, but nobody else has stood out the last few games?”

Jackson, straight-faced: “You know, I thought Fish played very well. Maybe I should mention that. His defense was solid. He made some steals. I like that.”

Reporter: “But do you sense repetition in these games, as you talk about them afterward?”

Jackson, smiling: “Maybe I’ll put it on tape and just run it right here on the podium so you guys don’t have to ask me questions.”

The Lakers are still focused like a laser on the Celtics, secure in the belief they learned their lesson last spring, counting the days to their game on Christmas.

Actually, the Lakers aren’t the same team. Now they have Andrew Bynum. Who knows how much entitlement they feel with the return of a second 7-footer?

The way to play well in big games is to play well in the little ones before it. On Christmas, the Celtics won’t have to turn up their effort or rise to new heights on defense.

If the Celtics are grown-ups, literally and figuratively, the Lakers are like kids opening their gifts under the tree, counting on getting exactly what they want.

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mark.heisler@latimes.com