Hearing the recent criticism regarding the Lakers' effort and their three late-game losses to Cleveland , Toronto and Memphis , Coach Phil Jackson consulted the record books for some perspective.

He thumbed through the regular-season and playoff results for the 2000-01 team, noticing the Lakers' first of three consecutive championship seasons had one distinguishable characteristic that made what he called "the most dominant playoff team." The Lakers entered the playoffs that year closing out the regular season with eight consecutive wins before sweeping their Western Conference opponents, including Portland , Sacramento and San Antonio . Though Philadelphia took Game 1 of the finals, the Lakers swept the series the rest of the way.

Jackson shared this tale after the Lakers' 99-97 victory Wednesday over the Charlotte Bobcats, a win that made the Zen Master the organization's all-time-winningest coach over Pat Riley, now standing at 534. Beyond waxing nostalgia regarding a milestone that certainly pales in comparison to his 10 championships (six with the Chicago Bulls, four with the Lakers), the anecdote served as a lesson for the 2009-10 team as they slugged through their first home game in two weeks.

"If you burn yourself out in the 10- or 15-game mark or 40- or 50-game mark ... you're not going to have much left at the 82 and beyond," Jackson said. "You really have to pace a team. We're hopeful we can do that with this group."

It was pretty obvious from the beginning that the Lakers' fatigue from an eight-game, 13-day trip had affected their performance. The Lakers had plenty of balance and ball movement from the beginning, led by Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who wasn't just trying to prove he was willing to feed the post but also was taking care with a sprained left ankle, an injury he suffered last week against Philadelphia .

The Lakers faced a team that had beaten them the last three trips but, this time out, didn't have a full lineup; the Bobcats were without forward Gerald Wallace (left hamstring pull). But, despite the Lakers' constant ball movement, they initially shot only 34.8% from the field and trailed 21-19 after the first quarter.

"We got out of sync a little bit, and the legs were extremely heavy," said forward Pau Gasol, who had only 14 points on six-of-13 shooting, despite constant looks in the post. "But we have to fight through that and find a way to win."

That had to happen without a healthy Bryant. Forward Lamar Odom accidentally stepped on Bryant's left ankle, and Bryant left soon after for the locker room, with 12.5 seconds remaining. He returned in the second half but scored only five points on two-of-12 shooting, his first single-digit effort this season.

"It just made it worse," said Bryant of his left ankle. "It just set it back to square one."

That also left the team scrambling to figure out how to win with Bryant and Gasol not at their most effective. Though Shannon Brown (19 points), Lamar Odom (19 points) Andrew Bynum (17 points, 14 boards) and Ron Artest (14) also provided double figures, the Lakers couldn't hold more than a seven-point lead through three quarters. No lead was actually safe until Jordan Farmar (nine points) deflected an inbound pass from Stephen Jackson with 7.9 seconds remaining, resulting in a Farmar dunk off Gasol's pass for the eventual 99-97 victory.

The road only gets tougher with four games remaining before the All-Star break, including Denver , Portland , San Antonio and Utah . The Lakers are trying to find a way to get through this marathon that is the NBA 82-game regular season -- one way is to share the workload, something the team demonstrated against Charlotte despite an otherwise sluggish performance.

"We got so many options on this team," Odom said. "Some nights, you're going to hit shots. Sometimes, you're going to try to rebound, play D, get steals. We have so many guys that can do so many different things. Tonight was my night to find the basket."

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