Message sent: Lakers tower above West

LOS ANGELES – Ron Artest bumped Kobe Bryant with his hip and bumped him again. He jammed his forearm into Bryant's back. He leaned into him with his 262 pounds until, finally, the NBA's MVP would take no more.

Bryant delivered a sharp chop to Artest's arm. Artest pressed some more. Bryant chopped again. Artest drew closer, still, and Bryant came with more force, crunching his elbow into Artest's sternum. The blow sent Artest flailing back a foot. He looked to the ref for help. No call came.

The message from Bryant and his Los Angeles Lakers was clear on Sunday night. They would not be bullied.

"I think his team relies on his energy and his ability to intimidate the other team," Bryant would later say of Artest. "It's my responsibility to take that from him, let my team know that's not going to happen."

The Houston Rockets had traded for Artest for games like this, to chase Bryant, hound him, make him work, and on this night it mattered not. The Lakers spotted the Rockets a 16-point lead, kicked the dust off their own legs then ran to a 111-82 victory, a stunning 45-point turnaround over the game's final 35 minutes.

Afterward, Bryant said the victory "didn't really say much." Right. Just like the Boston Celtics' crushing victory over the Detroit Pistons earlier in the day, the Lakers' rout of Houston officially put the rest of the league on notice: The road to the championship still goes through last season's two finalists.

"They're going to be there all year long," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said, and that was before he saw what the Lakers did to his team.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson had said the Rockets would be a "good test," and they were, for about 13 minutes. The Lakers have now won their first five games by an average of 22.4 points. Should the Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Hornets meet a similar fate when the Lakers visit this week, it will be fair to question whether the allegedly rugged Western Conference has already become a one-team race. The San Antonio Spurs will be fortunate to have four wins by the end of the month. Four hours before the Rockets and Lakers took the court, the Mavericks yielded 103 points to the previously winless Los Angeles Clippers. Now, it appears, the Rockets also have significant work to do before they can legitimately call themselves challengers to Bryant and his teammates.

The rest of the West can blame the Celtics for this. Losing in last season's NBA Finals gave the Lakers a renewed sense of purpose. Losing the way they lost gave them an edge. The Lakers extended the Finals to six games, but it felt like they were swept in four, especially after Boston closed out the series with a 39-point victory. They were too soft, too fragile. They couldn't defend. The Lakers heard it all over the summer.

"Going down the way they did in that last game, I think that one sits with you a little while, just getting absolutely crushed," Rockets guard Brent Barry said. "If they can hold onto those feelings and harbor them…"

Already, it looks like the Lakers have turned those feelings into fuel. Rockets forward Carl Landry twice elbowed Pau Gasol Sunday night. The second one was met by a hard glare and a few sharp words from the normally easy-going Spaniard.

"I mentioned that to one of my coaches," Jackson said, "that I think that woke up Pau."

Gasol went on to finish with 20 points and 15 rebounds, nearly double the 7.8 boards he averaged last season with the Lakers. He seems to have benefited as much as anyone from the return of the Lakers' young center, Andrew Bynum. With Bynum, the Lakers now start two 7-footers, in addition to their 6-10 small forward Vladimir Radmanovic.

"When you can bring Lamar Odom off the bench," Barry said, "that says something."

It says the Lakers have put their length to good use, evidenced by the 10 shots they blocked against Houston. All too often, the Rockets seemed to drive into the long arms of some Laker. Bryant even once stuffed Yao Ming from behind, despite giving up nearly a foot in height to him. Jackson made improving the team's defense the top priority in training camp, and the early results have been more than promising. The Lakers lead the league in defensive efficiency, yielding 86.4 points per 100 possessions.

Do the Lakers feel they can impose their will on anyone? "No question," Bynum said.

Trevor Ariza, who missed the second half of last season with a foot injury, has further bolstered the Lakers' bench, giving them an athletic forward who can defend as well as shoot with range. Before the game Jackson even lamented the Lakers' "abundance of talent," saying he was concerned about finding minutes for everyone. That could explain why rival team executives say the Lakers have made Luke Walton, Chris Mihm and, in at least one instance, Radmanovic available in trade discussions. Getting rid of the weighty contracts of either Walton (four years and about $22 million left after this season) or Radmanovic (two years, $13.3 million) could not only lessen the luxury-tax hit the Lakers will take this season, but also give them greater flexibility to re-sign Odom this summer.

Nearly every other team in the league would love to have such problems. Thanks to the Lakers, Adelman now has an easier time identifying his own team's warts.

"They exposed a lot of things," he said.

Mainly that the Rockets aren't ready to move into the top floor of the Western Conference. McGrady, who said he was battling the flu, missed 15 of 16 shots during his lost weekend in Los Angeles. Still missing Shane Battier, one of their better facilitators, the Rockets have been too reluctant to share the ball.

"I think it was the worst game we have ever had," Yao said.

Regardless, Sunday's verdict wasn't as much a referendum on the Rockets as it was a statement about the Lakers' dominance. The season is still young. The Lakers will lose, eventually, maybe as soon as Wednesday in New Orleans. But Bryant and his teammates have put the league on notice.

This season they're hitting back.