LOS ANGELES — On the seventh day, the Los Angeles Lakers finally rested, or as much as they're going to.

OK, so it was the seventh day of the last full week of the regular season, and the Lakers didn't get everything they came for, as the following checklist shows.

Wins: 64, with one game left, meaning they won't get to the 70 people talked about last fall.

Finish: No. 1 in the West, No. 2 to the Cleveland Cavaliers overall, barring miracles.

Momentum: Riding a one-game winning streak, after beating the Memphis Grizzlies, 92-75, Sunday night.

Point differential: No. 3 at 7.5, trailing only Cleveland's 9.1 and Boston's 7.6 ... with the Celtics going without Kevin Garnett for all but 72 minutes since the All-Star break.

In the good news for Lakers fans, it was only the regular season so anything they didn't do means little, compared to what they're in position to do now.

Aside from warming up the audience, harvesting gate revenue and giving aspiring teams like the Charlotte Bobcats and Phoenix Suns a purpose, the regular season is actually a six-month warmup to a two-month tournament.

How broken up was Lakers Coach Phil Jackson at the prospect of losing the No. 1 overall seeding?

He didn't watch the Cavaliers flatten the Celtics on TV Sunday afternoon — "I wasn't interested" — which put Cleveland a game away from clinching the No. 1 seeding.

It may be because four of Jackson's nine championship teams weren't seeded No. 1, and none of the four ever got to a Game 7 in the NBA Finals.

Jackson started the evening all but conceding No. 1 to Cleveland and saying he would rest his key people, sort of.

"I don't see them losing games," Jackson of the Cavaliers.

"I'm in the mode I want to coach at the end of the season ... short minutes for Fish (Derek Fisher). He's the only one we're watching, plus Andrew (Bynum), of course. ...

"The fact we're coming into the season playing a variety of different people, maybe not at our best form we've been at all year, that's OK.

"These guys know the difference between regular season and playoff games. They know you have to have a different gear for the playoffs."

If the Cavaliers ran hotter than the Lakers down the stretch, there are reasons for it, aside from the fact the Cavaliers are harder workers than the Lakers.

The Cavaliers had Boston and the Orlando Magic on their tails most of the way, and the Lakers chasing them at the end.

The Cavaliers had a sense of urgency, knowing they needed home-court advantage against the Lakers and Celtics.

The Lakers and Celtics, meanwhile, are confident that they can win on the road. (The Celtics are 0-7 in Cleveland over the last two seasons, but had to concede the race if the alternative was bringing back Garnett early.)

Nevetheless, when the Cavaliers separated themselves from Boston and Orlando, Coach Mike Brown said he would lighten up on LeBron James.

James then announced he wanted to play more rather than less, saying, "If playing time has to increase for us to win ball games because of the race with Orlando and Boston and L.A., then it will increase."

Brown then reversed his position, noting, "We bought some time at the beginning of the season, and, because of it, we have put ourselves in position to play LeBron extended minutes from time to time down the stretch."

If you want to look at it this way, this may not be a best-case scenario for the Lakers, but it's a good scenario.

Getting pounded in Portland, and finishing second to Cleveland, is good for their humility, launching them into the postseason hungry, rather than full of themselves.

If they have to open against the Utah Jazz, a physical team they have reason to respect, and bruises to remember them by, so much the better for the Lakers.

A little fear, which is all this Lakers team is capable of feeling, goes a long way toward inspiring them to play their best basketball. This is a team that went 2-0 against Cleveland and Boston and 0-2 against Charlotte.

Of course, all regular-season statistics will soon be history. The real season is almost here.