ESPN NBA

Admit it.

The Los Angeles Lakers can be hated, but also congratulated.

They can be the bully center, the busted guard and the smug coach, but also impressive.

They must be acknowledged.

Being the champion of November means a grand total of absolutely nothing, but being 16-3 and winners of eight in a row and 11 of 12 after beating Dallas on Thursday means everything in context.

They were supposed to be divided. (Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, at odds.)

They were supposed to need time. (Karl Malone and Gary Payton, newcomers.)

They were supposed to be distracted. (Bryant, with pressing business elsewhere.)

What the Lakers are, instead, is every bit of their early season potential come to life, shooting well, playing unselfishly with a few moments of exception and beating quality opponents. That's a big part of it. They are not just winning. They are high-stepping meaningful hurdles, beyond the self-imposed ones. There was the bad early November stretch of struggling to beat San Antonio without Tim Duncan and Tony Parker followed by losses to New Orleans and Memphis, but the last four games have resulted in victories over the Mavericks by 11, the Spurs by 16, the Pacers by 22 and the Spurs again by four.

In short, the Lakers have been everything the rest of the league thought possible. Or feared.

In the long term -- what really matters -- the worrisome thing for the 28 others already giving pursuit is that L.A. doesn't even have its act together yet. Players who were either on the team when Phil Jackson became coach or joined after say it can take an entire season to feel fully comfortable with the triangle offense, and maybe even partly into Year 2. Payton and Malone are doing this in Month 2.

Not that it's a great surprise. Both are veterans. Both were perfect fits in many ways coming in: Payton as a Jackson-preferred big guard who can pass and defend on the perimeter, Malone likewise a willing passer while also able to defend inside and step to the perimeter on offense to give O'Neal his elbow room on the post. Their early statements of being willing to accept a lesser role were dramatic -- by accepting less money.

That the same spirit has carried to the court is what matters now. Every time Malone walks into the locker room at Staples Center, he looks at the pictures that line the right side of the light-yellow wall that leads from the entrance to the stalls. Many of the greats -- Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, James Worthy, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Gail Goodrich, in order -- are on display.

He looks at the one at the end the most, just at the right turn to the dressing area. It's O'Neal after one of the championships from the three-peat, surrounded by other Lakers, covered in champagne and eyes clinched tight in scream and celebration. This is not just because of the placement. This is his motivation, and so it is that the same player who averaged 3.5 assists during the historic Utah years is at 3.9 the first 18 games as a Laker. The increase is slight statistically, but it's also loud in answering doubters who questioned he could handle anything more than being in the offensive spotlight.

Malone hasn't been old. Payton hasn't been a locker-room conflict like in Seattle. Just as O'Neal has toned down the hystrionics for an extension, shouting out for a new contract during exhibition games or as he walked down the hallway after leaving the locker room, and Bryant has dealt with his court case.

Lakers' eight-game win streak
Date	Opponent	Score
11/19	at New York	104-83
11/21	Chicago	101-94
11/23	Memphis	121-89
11/26	Washington	120-99
11/28	San Antonio	103-87
11/30	Indiana	99-77
12/3	at San Antonio	90-86
12/4	at Dallas	114-103

Bryant's numbers are mostly dramatically down from last season, although his minutes are too and there is the obvious difference that O'Neal was out for 15 games of 2002-03. But Bryant, answering the major question, has kept his composure.

There has been unexpected help. San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, most notably, chastised Spurs fans for what he believed was excessive abuse of Bryant during the Lakers' first trip through on Nov. 6. The cynics couldn't help but wonder about the motivation -- Bryant potentially becoming a free agent in the summer, the Spurs having spending power. The Lakers? They didn't care where it came from.

"I've got the greatest respect for Gregg," Jackson said when asked in his usual press scrum about Pop stepping up for Bryant. "I think he does a great job coaching. He's a gentleman. He's one of the few guys in this league, one of several I should say, in this league, that compete at a level in which he's totally engrossed in the game, animated about it, yet he's still got a lot of class. ... He's capable of congratulating you or whatever. It's just the kind of person he is."

And then the Lakers beat San Antonio. It's just the kind of team they are. They have three of the four meetings with the Spurs out of the way, before the defending champions have the chance to find their stride that will eventually come, and have gone 16-3 in the most credible of ways, playing together and beating good competition. They're killing other teams instead of each other.

Admit it.

Scott Howard-Cooper, who covers the NBA for the Sacramento Bee, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.