EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — In no particular order Monday, Lakers point guard Derek Fisher noted the following:
“It is what it is.”

“The playoffs are the playoffs.”
“Chauncey Billups is Chauncey Billups.”
You know, it’s probably a good thing the Lakers had only one day off between the Houston Rockets and the Denver Nuggets. Words just aren’t worth much right now. Action is all that matters.
And action is what the Lakers promised we’ll see from the start Tuesday night when the Western Conference finals commence at Staples Center.
By start, they meant the opening tip, not two or three quarters after the opening tip, which was their usual start time in Houston.
This would be a good idea since the Nuggets evidently are a lot like the Rockets, only they exist at a much more warped speed.
“Denver is way more physical,” Kobe Bryant said. “Denver has way more athletes. They have a lot of energy, and they carry it for 48 minutes. Denver will put you to sleep ... quickly.”
If the last series proved anything, it’s that these Lakers don’t need help dozing off. They have spent the past few days assuring everyone they have learned their lesson, but again, words are as relevant right now as the Sacramento Kings.
And is a lesson actually learned if it isn’t then applied? Honestly, young or not, does a player need to learn effort is required in the NBA playoffs? Is this really a revelation?
For the record, Aaron Brooks is 24 and Carl Landry is 25, and those two Rockets seemed to grasp the concept.
More accurately, it isn’t learning the importance of effort. Everyone already knows that. It’s experiencing what happens when effort slips and making the physical commitment needed to prevent it from occurring again.
“We failed those two tests recently,” Bryant said, referring to the Lakers’ flops in Texas. “We have to try to maintain our level and take it to another level now. This team is going to come in cocked and loaded.”
Bryant was talking about the Nuggets, a franchise that, interestingly enough, once sponsored a program in which people could trade in guns for tickets.
The Clippers attempted a similar promotion one year. It failed, however, when everyone decided they would rather keep their guns.
Now arrives the next challenge for the developing Lakers, some of whom still haven’t figured out how to be professional.
As jarring as this opinion sounds deep into the playoffs, it becomes even more so when it’s the opinion of the team’s coach.
Coach Phil Jackson said Monday he and his staff are dealing with some players worried about “contracts and things.” This admission leads to two observations:
1) No wonder some of the Lakers have issues with on-court focus.
2) Contracts and things? Are you freaking kidding? These are the conference finals now, fellas! There’s a time to be concerned with contracts and things. That time is July!
Jackson, as old school as a pair of Chuck Taylors tied together, probably was lamenting the reality of the modern-day coach more than exposing a soul-deep flaw in his team.
But, for the sake of this series, let’s hope the Lakers can concentrate a little more on the Nuggets and a little less on themselves during the next two weeks.
This matchup already is off to a feisty start and the Lakers and Nuggets players aren’t even involved. There is a scheduling conflict at Denver’s Pepsi Center, where on Monday, Game 4 and a World Wrestling Entertainment event both are scheduled.
“Even though the Denver Nuggets had a strong team this year and were projected to make the playoffs,” WWE chairman Vince McMahon growled in a statement, “obviously Nuggets and Pepsi Center owner Stan Kroenke did not have enough faith in his own team to hold the May 25 date for a potential playoff game.”
All right, we don’t know for a fact McMahon growled these words, but the news release arrived in our inbox and immediately swallowed five other e-mails, ripped off its shirt and tested positive for 17 banned substances.
Sadly, not even the words of a Vince McMahon mean much right now. Even he knows his wrestlers are going to be told to cram it in their tights.
So the Lakers are right back in the ring, matched against an opponent more dangerous than their previous one.
The turnaround time is so condensed it might take them an entire quarter Tuesday night to figure out if they’re playing the Rockets or the Nuggets or the Nockets or the Ruggets.
Probably won’t matter, though. They likely will continue rolling from their Game 7 victory Sunday, while Denver, nice and rested and rusted after nearly a week off, has to rediscover the pace of the playoffs.
The Lakers should win Tuesday night. But those are just our words, as weightless as the belittling thoughts of a wrestling gas bag.