Los Angeles ? Leave it to the Lakers to make light of a loss.

Coming off their low-effort virtual no-show in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Lakers all but laughed it off Monday and promised to try harder next time against Detroit.

“You can probably blame it on the thong thing Shaq had on. It kind of traumatized everybody in the locker room,” Kobe Bryant joked, one of two underwear references the Lakers came up with while discussing what went wrong in Game 1 and what needs to get better in Game 2.

Having been on this stage four times in the past five years, the Lakers have the luxury of knowing from experience that one loss at the start of a seven-game series does not foretell doom.

Two losses might get their attention, but they don’t plan on allowing that to happen.

“We beat ourselves,” Shaquille O’Neal said. “You know, we just didn’t come out with that killer instinct. We didn’t have a sense of urgency, way too many turnovers and didn’t shoot the ball well. If we knock out all of those things or just one or two of those things, we could have won that game.”

Los Angeles has shown a tendency throughout this season and over the past few years to bring out its “A” game only when pushed. It happened in the second round after the Lakers fell behind 2-0 to the San Antonio Spurs, and again in the Western Conference finals when their lack of focus in Game 5 at Minnesota was followed by a precision performance in Game 6.

Now that they realize the Pistons won’t be bothered by butterflies or startled by the star-studded crowd, the Lakers know they’ll need to bring a different level of energy and focus tonight.

“It has gotten our attention,” O’Neal said. “We realize that this team is not going to lay down because the Lakers are in the house. We really have to go out and play. It’s not anything they did to throw us out of our game. I think it’s more us.”

Coach Phil Jackson tried to get his team’s attention by replaying a clip from Game 1 in which Detroit coach Larry Brown was imploring his team to take advantage of the Lakers’ indifferent attitude toward defense, telling them they could get any shot they wanted,

For Brown, the challenge Monday was getting his team to forget about Game 1 and turning its focus toward the opportunity of taking a 2-0 lead before the series moves to Detroit for Games 3, 4 and 5.

Never in NBA history has a home team lost the first two games of the finals and come back to win the series.