Lakers are too cool to let loss bother them

Salt Lake City — The Los Angeles Lakers weren't flustered. They answered all their questions with a Laker kind of cool — a sort of concerned, yet unconcerned, detachment.

That's how it goes in the champions' locker room.

Win 15 NBA titles as a franchise, including last year's, and there's no need to panic. Even if your star gets injured or sick.

A quarter way through the season, guess who looks to be the best team in the NBA? Yup. The usual. Kobe. Pau. Lamar. Jack. (Jack Nicholson has earned the right to be included.)

And now Ron Artest.

What is it about the rich getting richer and the glamorous getting more glamorous?

The NBA's most valuable franchise ended an 11-game win streak, losing 102-94 to the Jazz on Saturday night. Worried? Not in the slightest. At least it didn't seem that way. Not even Kobe Bryant's fractured finger on his shooting hand could really upset them. Or the flu-like symptoms that teammates said had more to do with his 7-for-24 shooting night than anything.

There are bumps in the road, they were saying. But there's no mistaking the road the Lakers travel ?— the one leading to the NBA Finals. They're big, deep, talented, determined and smart.

Does a team need anything else . . . other than a little love on TMZ or in the pages of People Magazine?

Was it a big win for the Jazz? Very. They built their lead to 17 in the fourth quarter and held on. Does it mean the Jazz could actually eliminate the Lakers in the playoffs next spring?

Let's leave it to former Jazz player Derek Fisher, now with the Lakers, to put it in perspective:

"Those (Jazz) guys have been a good home team, I think, as far back as we all can remember. It's a tough place to win, but it's possible. We've done it before and won playoff games here before. It's not the location so much as we just did not play the type of game that would put us in a position to win."

In other words, they're supremely confident.

Honestly, it's December and they have 18 wins.

They don't need to turn it all the way up yet.

If there is a concern for the Lakers, it seldom seems to be about the other team. The only problems the Lakers ever encounter, in their minds, is occasionally themselves.