EASY WON'T DO IT FOR THIS TEAM.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

The most talented, the most savvy, the most driven second-place team in pro basketball came home Wednesday night. The Lakers came home to play a game that, a week ago, looked like a soft touch. Except that for them, it now should be understood, there are no soft touches.

Not even a game against the Toronto Raptors at Staples Center should be taken as a gimme, as a breather, as an unofficial night off of the sort the Lakers could give themselves when they were merely NBA champions and expectations were lower.

Thus it wasn't such a good sign 4 1/2 minutes into the game when Karl Malone was fouled by Michael Curry, went to the free-throw line and tossed up a first-shot air ball.

It looked worse when Malone couldn't stop giggling as he took the second shot and made it.

If this was an indication the Lakers had to bear down, they did.

Seven points from Shaquille O'Neal in the last three minutes of the first quarter put the Lakers ahead for good, and they led by as many as 20 points on their way to a 94-79 victory in the closest thing they'll ever get to a must-win game against Toronto in November.

Can you imagine the off-day quotes coming out of their El Segundo practice gym if the Lakers' Fab Four were going into Friday's game against Detroit on the verge of a four-game losing streak?

Yes, expectations are bigger now than when there were titles to defend, strangely enough. Scrutiny is more intense, because of Malone and Gary Payton and because of Kobe Bryant. As the Lakers taught themselves with that awful loss in Memphis on Monday night, every defeat is going to be picked apart for signs of the implosion Phil Jackson warned about.

After a summer in which they were buying a championship on the cheap one week and dressing their young superstar for court the next, it's possible to believe anything about these Lakers.

The 5-0 start, including the opening-night win over a yet-to-jell Dallas and the double-overtime win at Tim Duncan-less San Antonio, gave us one impression of what this season might be like, one in which the Lakers and the friendly fates steamrolled the Western Conference.

The two-game losing streak that followed put a damper on the record- regular-season talk, including as it did not only an understandable 114-95 stumble in New Orleans the night after the marathon in San Antonio but the inexcusably comprehensive 105-95 loss in Memphis.

By the time the Lakers got to Staples on Wednesday - which took O'Neal and Payton until 45 minutes before game time because of the rain-slowed freeways - the ``start of the season'' was over and what remained was the season.

A couple of years ago, that meant five months of carefully rationed effort, getting up for the showdowns with other championship contenders and letting up on less-meaningful opponents, until it came time for the playoffs and everybody started playing every night as if it mattered.

Back then a game like Wednesday's against Vince Carter (averaging 26.3 points) and Co. (averaging 50.0) might get away from the Lakers, but it would be seen only as a sign of the inability or unwillingness of O'Neal and veterans such as Robert Horry to break their backs night in and night out.

It's not that the Lakers have gotten any younger. In fact it's the opposite. But with four All-Star offense-makers in the lineup, and three one-time NBA All-Defensive first-team players, it has to be class nap time before the team at large lays down.

So any misstep is going to be viewed as a sign of something more serious.

Bryant distracted? He had a solid game against Toronto before flying to Colorado for a court appearance this morning. Bryant on an ego bender? That was the insinuation after he tried and failed to shoot them out of the fourth-quarter hole in Memphis. Payton and Malone fitting in? That issue flared for the first time after Payton sat for 21 of the 48 minutes against the Grizzlies. Payton, Malone and O'Neal too old and/or bruised to get back on defense? It kind of seemed that way when the Lakers gave up 61 points in the first half of both the Hornets and Grizzlies games. O'Neal and Bryant feuding? That's so last week, but available the next time Lakers fans feel like a good panic.

Every game now is a check of their concentration, their cohesion and their class.

Wednesday night was a test passed. They're 6-2 and percentage points behind Seattle in the Pacific Division. There's a long way to go, 74 must-wins to be exact.