Beginning of the end starts for the Lakers

Day 1, Kobe held hostage.

The season finally arrived, although without all the joy it once brought to Lakerdom, where Opening Night is also known as the Beginning of the End.

If an era is indeed ending, Tuesday night’s wild 95-93 loss to Houston can serve as a reminder of everything it was -- from the boos Bryant received when he was introduced to the wild cheers as he led the Lakers back from a 10-point deficit in the last 1 minute 32 seconds.

In Bryant’s Lakers career, as in the game, it wasn’t always successful or even coherent, but it was always thrilling and it was never over until it was over.

“Kobe’s Kobe,” said Houston’s Shane Battier, who made the three-pointer with 2.5 seconds left that stole the game back. “He’s the best in the league.

“When you’re going against him, you have to focus every second because he never takes a possession off. When he laces them on, whatever is happening elsewhere, he’s going to bring it for 48 minutes.”

True to form, Bryant was as brilliant as he often is when the chips are down -- especially when he’s the one who has overturned them -- scoring 45 points.

The noticeable boos in the mixed reception he received before the game turned into hopeful chants of “Ko-Be! Ko-Be!” in the second half and screams and gasps at the end.

These days Lakers fans don’t know whether to cheer or boo, hope or mourn.

With the NBA supposedly focused on opening its new season, the Lakers soap opera seemed to envelop the entire league, instead.

Two general managers, Washington’s Ernie Grunfeld and Houston’s Daryl Morey, felt obliged to issue rare announcements to reassure their players they weren’t offering any of them to the Lakers.

Trying to end speculation involving Gilbert Arenas, whose contract is expiring, Grunfeld said, “I don’t normally comment on rumors but there is no truth to this rumor.”

The Lakers weren’t talking to Houston about Tracy McGrady either, but there were so many rumors, Morey announced there was nothing to them, which, McGrady acknowledged, “means a lot.”

“From the outside looking in, I think they [Lakers] need to do something early rather than wait because of the effect on the other players,” McGrady said before Tuesday’s game.

“But, I mean, it’s tough, with what he [Bryant] has done in that Laker uniform? Three titles, scoring championships and just the performances he put on. It seems weird that we’re even talking about this, you know. . . .

“It’s just a shame we’re sitting here talking about him departing ways from the Lakers and all this other [stuff] when we should be talking about a game, me going up against one of the best players in this league.

“Man, it’s just crazy.”

Hey, these are the Lakers, where crazy is the norm on a good day.

Not that they were going to fool the new Houston coach, Rick Adelman, the old Sacramento coach who saw the Lakers fight among themselves often enough while taking care of business when they got on the court.

“I told my team not to pay any attention to what’s going on with the Lakers,” Adelman said before the game. “Kobe will play great. He’ll be energized.”

Sure enough, Bryant had 19 points by halftime, when he went on with TNT’s sideline reporter, Craig Sager, and announced, “As long as I’m wearing the Laker uniform, I’m a Laker.”

So far so good for the Lakers. One half of the first game was in the books and Bryant was still a Laker!

Unfortunately, that pretty much ended their good times for the moment. The Rockets took over in the third quarter, going up by 10 points when Derek Fisher knocked the ball loose and, as everyone else changed ends, Luke Walton then accidentally batted it into the Rockets’ basket.

McGrady got credit for it because he was the closest Rocket, at midcourt.

It looked like the crowning indignity until the Lakers turned it around at the end, before the Rockets turned it around one last time.

Bryant’s Lakers career continues. As it was, so it will be, however long it lasts.

mark.heisler@latimes.com