State of the Artest? Lakers enjoying added defensive dimension

The question was this: What would happen if you added the combustible, unpredictable, complicated personality and basketball talents of Ron Artest to a locker room already stretched to its limits by egos, reality shows and other assorted agendas?

Judging from the results, and from Phil Jackson's relaxed, rested appearance during the team's first road trip of any significance this season, the answer is not what many people expected. The Lakers with Artest haven't merely been successful -- at 20-4, the defending champs are tied with the Celtics for the best record in the league -- but also harmonious. Somehow, they go together.

Ron Artest and Kobe Bryant have had no friction this season. (Getty Images)

Like Hennessy and ice cubes, you might say.

"You can't really predict the future," Artest said this week. "We've got to put in the work first."

The first two games of this trip have played out like a sequel to Kobe Doin' Work, the Spike Lee documentary that detailed Bryant's preparation for and performance in a regular-season game against the Spurs. After Bryant dropped 61 on the Knicks at Madison Square Garden last season, he and Lee lamented having chosen the wrong game to document. The first two games of this road trip must have generated similar remorse -- 42 points with a broken finger and the lingering effects of the stomach virus in Chicago, followed by 39 at Milwaukee with the buzzer-beater in overtime.

One of the first people to seek out Bryant after he hit that shot in Milwaukee was Artest, his former nemesis. If I were Lee, I'd do a documentary on him. In another time, another world, Artest would've found himself with the defensive assignment on that last inbounds play, trying to keep Kobe from beating him. "We're on the same team now," Artest said. The result, perhaps, has been disappointing for those who thought the Lakers would never survive this collision of massive egos.

"He has kind of taken on a quiet kind of demeanor of, 'We're here, this is where the buck stops,'" Jackson said. "And he gives us that kind of security that there's a guy out here that's going to drop the weight on somebody if they come in the paint. He's going to stand up and be counted when, defensively, we've got to do the job."

While Bryant has carried the Lakers on this road trip, which continues Saturday in New Jersey and Sunday in Detroit, Artest is the guy who has changed the champs' demeanor. And for the better, mind you. There could be any number of reasons for Bryant's electrifying start -- his offseason work with Hakeem Olajuwon has vastly improved his post moves, and he's more deadly than ever from mid-range -- but Artest is where the buck stops on defense. He has demanded the toughest assignment every night the way Kobe has always demanded the ball.

Through 24 games, the Lakers are better than last season in nearly every significant defensive category. Points per game are down from 99.3 to 95.5; points per 100 possessions from 105 to 100; opponent field-goal percentage from .447 to .425; and effective field-goal percentage (accounting for twos and threes) from .490 to .457. Much of that, if not all, can be isolated as Artest's impact. The Lakers have gone from the pliable, gutless defensive team that got pushed around by the Celtics in the 2008 Finals, to the more determined group that beat Orlando last season, to sixth in the NBA in points allowed.

Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke, who panned the Artest signing in July by calling him "an aging nut whose greatest hits have occurred on the heads of fans," recently retreated on his Twitter page. "So far I've been wrong about Ron-Ron," he wrote. "His numbers aren't great, but his defense can be breathtaking. Ariza couldn't play D like that."

During the Lakers' victory in Utah that began this trip, Plaschke wrote, "Best Laker D I've seen in 20 years."

Not bad for an aging nut.

Lost in a recent interview with the Sporting News, in which Artest talked about drinking Hennessy during halftime while with the Bulls, was something even more interesting. The gist of the question was how Kobe and Artest would be able to co-exist.

"Kobe averages 30 and is a great offensive player," Artest said "Then you have defense. So on defense, now I have my supporting cast. ... I'm one of the best defenders to ever play basketball, so I'm still the first option on defense."

Jackson, who managed to sometimes subdue the demons of Dennis Rodman, already has learned to take what Artest says with a grain of salt. Jackson prefers to monitor what Artest does, and so far the Zen Master has no complaints. "He's taken the position of, 'Let me have the toughest guy out here and I'll take on the scorer,'" Jackson said. "'You guys do the work that you have to do to support me, but I'm good with this guy.' And offensively, he's fit in very well. He enjoys passing the ball and he's taken on that role."

Lamar Odom, who has known Artest from their native Queens, N.Y., since they were teenagers, said Ron-Ron "doesn't get enough credit on his IQ for the game, his understanding of basketball. ... A lot of players get confused by the triangle. He can give you whatever you need as far as scoring, a defender, an underrated passer, an underrated ball-handler, knocking down the three."

Defensively, Artest is a step slower at 30 than he was during his Defensive Player of the Year days. But he's learned to use his girth and IQ to defend power forwards and wing players with equal relish and aplomb. He wants the 6-8 Carmelo Anthony and the 6-4 Dwyane Wade, both of whom he's held below their scoring averages this season. Bryant got all the credit with his incredible buzzer-beating 3-pointer off glass to beat Miami, but it was Artest who held Wade to 7 for 21 shooting. Whereas Jackson had to burn some of Bryant's fuel to slow down Anthony in the Western Conference finals, this is no longer necessary. Imagine the damage Bryant will be capable of in May and June as a result.

"He adds a physicality to our defense that we didn't have," Bryant said. "We were more rangy; we used our length a lot more last year. Now with him, it's more meat and potatoes. He can put his body on people and make them feel very uncomfortable."

Bryant would know, having found himself on the receiving end of Artest's strong-arm tactics during the Western Conference semifinals against Houston last season. Bryant also grasped what was apparent to Jackson and GM Mitch Kupchak: If Yao Ming hadn't gotten hurt in that series, the Lakers might never have made it past the Rockets. And given the choice between letting Artest join LeBron James in Cleveland -- where he'd likely be waiting to make Kobe "uncomfortable" in the Finals -- and having him on their side, the decision was fairly straightforward.

"I think people were confused," Odom said of the backlash that came with the Artest signing. "I think when his name came up, you only thought of one thing. You didn't think about him being Defensive Player of the Year. You didn't think about how he helped those Indiana teams almost come out of the East, and how he played so we well in Sacramento, and how well he played in Houston. Without [Tracy] McGrady and Yao, they pushed us to seven games. I don't think he gets enough credit for how he's been able to turn it around. We have a lot of depth in this locker room, not just in ability, but in character."

Artest was in a reflective mood this week in Chicago, where his NBA career began. Riding through the city the night before playing the Bulls, he spoke of how much he enjoyed his time there. We were on our way from the team hotel, the Peninsula, to dine at the Blackstone, where the NBA was founded in 1946. Artest devoured everything sent his way from reigning Iron Chef Jose Garces' kitchen at Mercat a la Planxa, and must have downed a dozen pots of green tea. Bellmen, hostesses, and servers alike later professed how astounded they were by his manners -- his "Yes, sirs" and "No, sirs" -- as though this couldn't possibly have been that guy, the lunatic who went into the stands in Auburn Hills.

Artest gets that a lot. Commissioner David Stern, who suspended Artest a record 73 games and sent $7 million of his salary to charity after the Palace brawl, recently summoned Artest to his office for what has become their annual get-together. It'll happen next month, when the Lakers are in town to play the Knicks. They've met once a year since the brawl, Artest said. It's Stern's way of checking up on him and making sure he's OK.

He seems OK to me. And amazingly enough, so do the Lakers.