LOS ANGELES — If you're expecting ballet, you're in the wrong place.

Game 1 of the Lakers-Utah series was as physical as advertised, but after 60 fouls, three disqualifications and 76 free throws, the Lakers made it through to the other side with a 109-98 victory and the knowledge that, just one game in, they're in a much better position than the Jazz.

No surprise here either: Kobe Bryant has a lot to do with that, although not necessarily in the traditional fashion.

Sure, Bryant had his usual MVP-type big-game numbers — 38 points, six rebounds, seven assists — but compared to the usual highlight-film type stuff, the bulk of his offense Sunday amounted to clerical duty. He went to the line for 23 free throws. He made 21 of them.

"Our biggest scoring threat of the night" is how Lakers coach Phil Jackson referred to Bryant's march to the stripe.

That didn't do a lot for the guys compiling the video clips, but it's the biggest reason the Lakers will take a 1-0 lead into the next game on Wednesday.

If the Jazz is going to bang and thump and clutch and grab, as they did Sunday, there are going to be fouls called. The question, given the unpredictability of NBA officiating, is just how many.

And so the best remedy, from the Lakers' perspective, is to take what the Jazz will give them, which figures to be a whole bunch of trips to the foul line. Sunday, there were 46 and the Lakers converted on 30; Bryant was there so much that, if he hadn't made a single basket, his 21 free throws still would have been good for a share of game-high scoring honors.

"They're easy baskets," Bryant said. "You've got to be able to knock those free throws down, step up there. They're open looks. You go up there and miss two free throws, and sometimes that can change the momentum. It's as good as a turnover.

"You have to take the responsibility to go up there and knock them down."

That he did, making his first 17 free throws before missing two in the final minutes, when the banging of bodies appeared to be taking its toll. Bryant made just one of his six fourth-quarter field-goal attempts — a potentially fatal flaw in a close game — but it didn't matter because he kept hitting those free throws.

"It's an incredible night to have 23 foul shots," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who used that number to begin one of the great playoff traditions, working the officials for the next game, though in this case, he did it in sort of backhanded fashion.

"I know Utah's not going to be happy about it. We'll probably see about half that in the next game, if not less."

Utah coach Jerry Sloan declined to rise to that bait, saying, "They called them, he shot them. That's fine. I can't do anything about that."

But he did suggest that if the number falls, it might not just because of the work of the guys with the whistles.

His team's defense against Bryant, he said, "was very, very poor at best. (Fouls) are what you do when you try and bail out. When we tried to help each other, we were OK and at times when we got lost, they did a great job backdooring us a few times. Hopefully we'll adjust a little bit better defensively and do a better job next time we play them."

Sloan and his players came out of Game 1 confident they could play better — "We missed a lot of easy shots, a lot of open shots we normally make," said guard Deron Williams — but the Lakers feel much the same way, and have plenty of reason to think so.

They let most of a 19-point third-quarter lead get away — Utah was within four points with 4:44 to play — and won despite being horribly, embarrassingly manhandled on the boards: outrebounded 58-41, including an absurd 25-8 margin at the offensive end.

Lamar Odom suggested some of that had to do with Utah's offensive approach. "It's funny," he said. "They pack it in just to kick it out and get jumpers, and the rebounds come long."

Mostly, though, it's a matter of shifting gears from facing Denver's hurry-up-and-get-a-steal approach to defense to Utah's body-to-body banging.

"Until they experience it, and get into that kind of a scrum match that you're going to have out there," said Jackson, "it's hard for them to be told that they just have to get in there and get the ball, and that type of a thing."

As Bryant said, "It takes a little getting used to."

Not that he's complaining.

"It's nice," he said. "You get a chance to bang. I mean, that's what basketball's about if you're an '80s fan or a basketball aficionado. You kind of like that stuff."

You especially like it if the banging sets you up for 21 points on shots where no one can block you or bang you or even stand too close.

A simple thing, those free throws, but in a game and a series where the banging figures to be constant and the foul shots could be frequent, that simple thing could be the best response, as well as the most consistent offensive weapon.

It worked that way Sunday, and the Lakers have a 1-0 lead to show for it.

— Contact columnist David Lassen at dlassen@VenturaCountyStar.com.