Jackson’s early read on Lakers isn’t good

The Lakers gathered together after their final practice, ready to take on the Phoenix Suns and accomplish what they couldn’t last season -- winning a first-round playoff series.

Or, well, maybe not.

“We’ll be out of this series in four games,” Coach Phil Jackson said angrily in the team huddle, laying out what he believes will happen if the Lakers don’t talk more often on defense and show a little more shine on offense.

It wasn’t a great final day of fine-tuning: Shortly after media members were let into Saturday’s practice, Sasha Vujacic missed a dunk in a scrimmage, as if to emphasize the point that all’s not quite well.

“I was upset,” Jackson said of his huddle haranguing. “I don’t think they carried the right attitude in this practice. The starters weren’t focusing. You can see Luke [Walton] is down here trying to get his shot back. Lamar [Odom] is still out there on the floor. We’ve got guys that still need to work on their game to get it tuned up. We’ve got to get there and we have to do it quickly.”

That’s not a good sign when the opponent had the league’s top offense (110.2 points a game) and second-best record (61-21), and owns a psychological edge that began a year ago with a seven-game victory in the first round (and continued this season with a 3-1 record against the Lakers).

So far, the Lakers’ main rallying cry has been “Remember the book!”

It was Kwame Brown’s turn to amp up the rhetoric Saturday, firing a subtle shot at Suns Coach Mike D’Antoni, who was quoted as saying “Kwame is awful” in the book “:07 Seconds or Less,” a behind-the-scenes look at last season’s Suns.

“I wouldn’t have nothing good to say about him either if I was going to say something, but I’m not going to do that,” Brown said.

And so go the Lakers, one page at a time.

A year ago, they had their moments against the Suns, many more than expected, actually.

There was a successful share-the-ball mantra that stabilized their offense and carried them to three victories, along with a buzzing defense that held the Suns under 100 points three consecutive times.

There were Smush Parker’s late steal and Walton’s tie-up of Steve Nash, followed by Kobe Bryant’s buzzer-beater in overtime of a frenetic Game 4.

The crusher for them was Game 6, when Tim Thomas’ three-pointer with 6.3 seconds left forced overtime, at which point the Suns reasserted themselves as the series favorites.

Then came a 121-90 loss, the Lakers’ worst-ever defeat in a Game 7. Bryant had 23 points in the first half as the Lakers trailed, 60-45, but he took only three second-half shots, missing them all. Neither Jackson nor Bryant had ever lost a first-round series in their respective positions, but Jackson fell to 14-1 as a coach and Bryant to 8-1 as a player.

It could be said that the Lakers aren’t going into the playoffs with nearly as much thrust as last season -- rather than an 11-3 push, they staggered home with a 4-8 slump and finished seventh in the West.

Then again, the Suns aren’t exactly playing their best ball either, going 11-7 over the final four weeks of the season, including two victories over the Lakers (115-107 in L.A. and 93-85 in Phoenix). In comparison, San Antonio finished with a 25-4 surge before sitting players for its last two games (both losses), and Dallas was on a 30-4 tear before it started resting players.

So there might be enough room for a crack of optimism in the wall of circumstances facing the Lakers.

“I think we’re going to win this series,” Walton said. “I know it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be a fight, but there’s not a question in my mind that if we’re all on the same page, we can come out and win this.”

The keys again will be Brown, the Lakers’ “Inside Man” a year ago, and Bryant -- will he pass or shoot or a combination? -- as well as rookie Jordan Farmar, who likely gets the first chance at trying to slow Nash.

To his credit, Farmar has remained light and loose in the last few days after a season in which he was more or less ignored. After Friday’s practice, he looked into an approaching wave of reporters and cameramen at the Lakers’ training facility and said with a smile, “Oh, now y’all want to talk to me?”

His tone eventually got a little more serious, particularly when Nash was mentioned. Nash, the league’s two-time MVP, obliterated the Lakers in last season’s playoffs, averaging 22.1 points and 9.6 assists. He made 50.9% of his shots, highly impressive for a point guard.

No doubt the Suns saw Sacramento guard Mike Bibby outscore Farmar, 17-2, in the first quarter of last Wednesday’s game. Farmar did play better defense in the second half of that game, but ...

“They’re going to test me. They’re supposed to,” Farmar said. “I’m going to be ready for it. I’m looking forward to it.”

The Lakers will find the middle a lot more clogged this time around.

Amare Stoudemire successfully returned from knee surgery, averaging 20.4 points and 9.6 rebounds this season and providing a more physical presence at center than Boris Diaw did a year ago.

Where many of the Lakers’ game-plan arrows pointed to Brown in last year’s playoffs, they’re now pointed at Bryant.

“Kobe’s going to read what’s going on,” Walton said. “If they’ve got one man on him, he’ll be aggressive. If they’re double- or triple-teaming him like a lot of teams do, hopefully he’ll trust us and get us the ball and let us make some plays.”

Jackson’s take: “If we’ve got to get into a situation where we get behind and we’ve got to catch up and we’ve got to get into a role where we go ‘Kobe Ball,’ we’ll do it.”

Bryant has been all business since the regular season ended. He hasn’t won a playoff series since the 2004 Western Conference finals. He scoffed when a reporter asked what he thought of the Lakers’ chances against Phoenix.

“What do you think I’m going to say to that?” Bryant said. “We may be underdogs in the series, but we’re not underdogs in our own minds and hearts.”

If they somehow win, it could make a good book.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com