Last Christmas, I got my curmudgeon on and good. Since my East Village apartment had no heat, I watched the Spurs–Pistons game from a nearby café, where several others joined me. We all had our hackles up over the fact that the game — a rematch of a hotly contested seven-game Finals a few months earlier — was the early game, the preliminary to the Heat–Lakers matchup later in the day. This was the game for real fans, we told ourselves in almost so many words. That later game was for casual fans that needed something to do before NFL took over the airwaves.

My hackles went up again when I learned that this year’s Christmas Day game would again be between the Lakers and the Heat. I sat disgustedly in front of my terminal then wondered aloud why not Dallas vs. Phoenix or San Antonio vs. Houston or Dallas vs. Miami or Cleveland against anyone. This year’s Lakers–Heat seemed like a matchup of two teams heading in the opposite direction, the Lakers inching upward and the Heat crashing. Two and a half hours of intensely watched airtime could have been put to better use by the league I figured.

Well now, a few days before the game, I have to do a Carmelo backtrack and say this looks like a great matchup. The hype will be on superstars Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant, but there’s a lot here for hoops curmudgeons too. The Lakers have struggled since losing forward Lamar Odom and their struggles bring to mind another one of coach Phil Jackson’s great teams. Meanwhile, Miami appeared to be in deep trouble when Shaquille O’Neal was lost for two months following knee surgery in November. Instead, they’ve hung tough and figure to be in the mix for a playoff spot.

The first third of this Laker season has been about coping with injuries. Bryant missed the first two games and played himself up to speed upon returning to action. The team played well rallying to beat Phoenix in the opening contest and surged to a 15–6 record when Odom sprained a knee (he’ll be out for about a month). But since then, the wheels have fallen off the Lakermobile. They’ve lost three out of four, and the cohesion that marked their earlier games is gone.

The Lakers’ recent play brought to mind the struggles of the ’98 Bulls. What struggles? Chicago won 62 games and their sixth title in eight years that season. However, Scottie Pippen — the “other” superstar on that team to Michael Jordan — was injured and played only 44 games that season. Like Odom, who averaged 14.8 points, nine boards, and 5.5 assists last year in the Laker triangle offense, Pippen had a very well-rounded skill set. Both teams ran the triangle offense — and the ball usually started in their hands because they were a threat to shoot from outside, find an open teammate moving toward the hoop, or drive to the rim. This put immediate pressure on the defense apart from having to mark another scoring machine on the wings.

The Bulls of that era proved they could win games — if not titles — without Jordan. They had gone 55–27 during Jordan’s first retirement. However, early in the ’98 season, winning without Pippen — who missed a chunk of action early in the season — proved more vexing. The Bulls went 12–9 through the first quarter of the season and the offense suffered as defenses felt freer to collapse on Jordan, and without having to fear the threat of Toni Kukoc or Ron Harper as they would Pippen.

This also has been true of the Lakers during the last week. On Tuesday night in Chicago, the Bulls used Luol Deng — who might otherwise guard Odom — on Bryant, and frequently brought guard Chris Duhon over on double teams to get the ball out of Bryant’s hands. Smush Parker, Luke Walton, and Vladimir Radmanovic didn’t pose the same threat Odom does. As a result, Bryant, coming off of 53- and 45-point games, was limited to 19 points on 6–19 shooting in a 94–89 Laker loss.

Miami will be hard pressed to match the effectiveness of the Chicago defense, but it’s clear the defending champs are surviving Shaq’s loss better than anyone anticipated. The Heat were 2–2 with Shaq this season and were 3–4 when it was announced O’Neal would miss 4–6 weeks following knee surgery. (Most observers quickly translated 4–6 weeks to mean two months given Shaq’s age and conditioning habits.) That night, the Knicks routed them 100–76 in Miami. Some columnists — myself included — quickly pegged them for the lottery after that loss.

Oops. The Heat has held together, and since that beatdown, they’ve actually managed to tread water going 8–8. What’s particularly admirable about the stretch is that the schedule hasn’t been entirely full of cream puffs. Phoenix, Denver, and San Antonio have all pounded the Heat, but the team played tough, close losses to Detroit and the Clippers, and beat Sacramento on the road.

The Heat have slowed the pace down considerably (they rank 17th in possessions per game this season after finishing 12th last year), and reaped improved contributions from their inside players, especially Alonzo Mourning and Udonis Haslem. As a result of strong play and continued excellence from Dwyane Wade, the Heat have been able to withstand poor seasons from starters Antoine Walker and Jason Williams.

This would be a great story in the making except the Heat presently rank 27th in the league in Offensive Efficiency and points per 100 possessions, and 14th on Defense. It’s hard to imagine a team with those rankings continuing to play .500 ball. But the Lakers are shorthanded too, so that should make this Christmas Day matchup in Miami much more compelling than it first seemed.

mjohnson@nysun.com