LOS ANGELES — A simple field goal wasn't going to be enough.

Not after how last season unfolded, how the last game unraveled, how the optimism since soared — unrivaled.

Just two points? Sorry, too little.

So Pau Gasol delivered more Tuesday night, beginning the Lakers' season with a basket ... and one.

Thirty-eight seconds into 2008-09, the Lakers had a 3-point play and a lead they wouldn't relinquish on a night they now can cherish.

For almost 20 hours even. Then they have to do it all over again. Against the Clippers this time. And with a little more conviction, please.

Lakers 96, Portland 76. The first step with maybe a thousand more to come.

Welcome to an entire season of and-one, a year in which the Lakers are expected to win now and — especially — later and in between jell into a magnificent collection of basketball brilliance capable of producing only everything ... and then some.

"The media," small forward Vladimir Radmanovic said, "does like to pump up everything."

In the case of these Lakers, we in the media aren't alone. Everyone likes to pump up everything concerning this team.

The idea of the Lakers being Pacific Division titlists is as assumed as the notion that the rim will be round.

They are the consensus pick to win the Western Conference, a projection underlined when Derek Fisher answered a question by beginning, "When you're as talented as we are ..." Then he answered another question the same opening line, smiling while doing so.

The Lakers, one game into the journey, already are being asked to detail what they must do to earn home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

So, among themselves, they also already must be contemplating winning everything, right?

"You know," center Andrew Bynum said before the game, "we just talked about that."

So before the opening jump ball on the NBA's opening night, the Lakers discussed June, deciding to forgo that boring game-by-game mentality and instead take it one season at a time.

And why not? This is what happens when a franchise with a tradition of winning suddenly reappears in the NBA Finals. And the Lakers' emergence last season was as sudden as anything that takes eight months to happen can be sudden.

A year ago at this time, Kobe Bryant barely seemed to be a Laker, Gasol definitely was a Grizzly and

Bynum was someone Bryant wanted deported. Or worse.

Now, of course, fortunes have changed to the point where the Lakers either win the next NBA title or they're considered complete, total, undeniable failures.

"I never want to be in the locker room hearing someone else playing 'We Are the Champions' again," said Lamar Odom, recalling how last season concluded in a 39-point heap of ugh in Boston. "Hopefully, at the end this time, we're the one with champagne on our heads."

Hopefully? That's not good enough for true Lakers fans, who wear their passion on the non-existent sleeves of their Kobe jerseys.

Speaking of which, the Lakers also understand that just dressing the way they dress brings with it certain expectations. Yankee pinstripes, Carolina blue, Laker purple — clothes can make the man, make the man wither, we mean.

"Once you put on this jersey, there's a mentality that comes with it," Fisher said. "If you don't expect to win, you shouldn't put it on in the first place."

Said Gasol: "It's a mindset you want to have every day so that it becomes natural. That can only help you get to where you want to go."

And from Odom: "We should be picked to win it. That puts a red dot on our backs."

And finally from Bynum: "We've got the biggest target on our chests."

Dots on their backs, targets on their chests ... whatever. The Lakers certainly have weight on their shoulders, strapped there by one another, this team unafraid to burden itself with the same expectations its most zealous fans possess.

"It takes a commitment," Coach Phil Jackson said. "If you want to win the championship, you have to commit to this for nine months."

As for the opening night reviews, Bryant eased into the season then exploded all over the Trail Blazers in the third quarter.

The Gasol-Bynum duo will take some time becoming one, Bynum finishing with only eight points and three rebounds. There's a reason Gasol called their on-court relationship "a work in process." He probably meant "progress," but either word fits fine.

Odom seemed completely comfortable coming off the bench, scoring nine points and adding seven rebounds and leading the Lakers in smiles.

Beyond that, Tuesday pretty much went the way many nights likely will go for the Lakers this season, this long, long season.

"That was a good way to start," Jackson said. "I'm pleased with the comfort level of the win, the margin we had."

You're expecting a lot from these Lakers, and you're absolutely right.

They're expecting a lot from themselves, too, and nothing could be more right than that.