Lakers’ cast shows character

It was a stiff request to begin with, the Lakers taking on the Dallas Mavericks, who rolled into town with the league’s best record and a 13-game winning streak.

They wouldn’t get to 14.

Again defying NBA logic, the short-staffed Lakers went point-for-point with one of the more seasoned offenses in the league and did more than survive. They excelled, taking possession of the last quarter and its final few minutes in a 101-98 victory Sunday at Staples Center.

Continuing to win again and again, with whomever is available to suit up, the Lakers got another stand-up effort from a different player, Sasha Vujacic taking a turn at the front of the line with a career-best 16 points, including a three-pointer that put the Lakers ahead for good, 100-98, with 28.5 seconds to play.

No wonder Phil Jackson couldn’t help allowing himself a rare smile as he left the court.

“Quite a finish to that game,” he said.

Quite a statement from a team that wasn’t really sure what it had when the season began 10 weeks ago. Kobe Bryant and Jackson were still limping from their respective surgeries. Then Lamar Odom went down, followed by Kwame Brown, and, funny thing, it hasn’t really mattered.

Sunday’s effort was a unique way for Jackson to become the fastest coach ever to collect 900 NBA victories.

Bryant had 26 points on nine-for-20 shooting, eight rebounds and six assists -- solid, obviously, but not the story of the game.

That was reserved for Vujacic, who made six of seven shots, four of five from three-point range, and was then surrounded by reporters at his locker for the first time in his three-year Lakers career.

“I’m proud of him because he’s taken his lumps here and the fans have been pretty hard on him,” Bryant said. “What people don’t understand is that he’s a tough kid, he’s not going to back down. He’s not going to stop being aggressive. He’s not going to stop working hard. And when you have that combination, the fans are going to turn around because they’ll see that.”

As if to demonstrate Bryant’s point, Vujacic sported a red right eye after the game. He was accidentally poked by former Lakers forward Devean George early in the fourth quarter. He went on to hit three three-pointers before the game ended.

Vujacic insisted he wasn’t the hero of the game.

“A hero when we win the championship,” he said. “Not yet.”

Not to be forgotten in victory: Luke Walton scored 21 points, Ronny Turiaf had 13, and Smush Parker had the defensive play of the game, blocking Jason Terry’s driving layup attempt with 16.9 seconds to play and protecting the two-point lead Vujacic had provided.

“He came out of nowhere to get to that ball,” Jackson said. “Smush just came off and found him, did a great job.”

After Walton made one of two free throws, George was long on a three-point attempt with 3.9 seconds left, and the Lakers officially moved to a collective 4-2 against Dallas, Phoenix, Utah and San Antonio, the top teams in the Western Conference.

The Lakers (23-11), however, were slow to anoint themselves an elite team.

“Teams like Dallas and the Spurs play like that every night,” Walton said. “And right now, we’re playing like that against them, then we kind of drop off the level of play against the teams that aren’t that good. So to be an elite team, you have to be playing at that level every night.”

Before the game, when Jackson had only 899 victories, he laughed off the concept of 900, calling it a number, a nothing, “an area code somewhere.”

He was more reverent afterward.

“It’s a compliment to all the players I’ve had, the great players, the great teams and the great runs that we’ve had,” said Jackson, who is 900-364 in his career.

The Lakers would need a sharp fourth quarter after trailing, 77-68, through three.

They got it and more, outscoring the Mavericks the rest of the way, 33-21, good enough to end one winning streak while extending their own to four games.

Forward Dirk Nowitzki captured the Mavericks’ night by giving credit to “that Vujacic guy.”

“Those were points you don’t expect,” said Nowitzki, who scored 29. “... He was hot, he made big threes for them.”

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