Plenty of star turns to go around

Who’s next?

The Lakers have been getting timely contributions from different players during their four-game winning streak, almost as if a wheel is spun in their locker room before every game.

Sasha Vujacic had a career-best 16 points against Dallas. Smush Parker had a season-high 23 against Denver. Brian Cook was two from his career high with 26 points against Sacramento. Every player on their active list scored against Philadelphia.

Naturally, many people are surprised that the Lakers continue to win without starters Lamar Odom and Kwame Brown. Not the Lakers themselves.

“I don’t know about surprised,” Vujacic said after a 101-98 victory Sunday against Dallas. “I’m glad that everybody stepped up. Everyone from the bench just wanted to show the coaching staff and the crowd that we are here to play and we can do something. That was our moment, and now we just have to keep it up.”

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Tonight’s game against the punch-less Memphis Grizzlies is the type Luke Walton is talking about when he says the Lakers can’t qualify for elite status until they prove they can also play well against the droopy teams.

They are 4-2 against Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix and Utah, the top four teams in the Western Conference, but they also have losses to Charlotte, Seattle, Portland and New Orleans, teams with a combined 48-89 record.

Walton said not to push the Lakers into the stratosphere after their victory over Dallas because “right now, we’re playing like that against [top teams], then we kind of drop off the level of play against the teams that aren’t that good.”

The Grizzlies (8-27) have the league’s worst record and are a paltry 6-11 at home.

Interim coach Tony Barone, who took over for the fired Mike Fratello on Dec. 28, has employed an up-tempo style that has the Grizzles averaging 115.6 points in five games. They had averaged 94.5 points a game before that.

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Walton hit a spinning back-to-the-basket circus shot in the second quarter of Sunday’s game, encroaching on the territory of Kobe Bryant.

“He said I owe him a couple of bucks for stealing that from him,” Walton said. “That was definitely something that I don’t normally do, but it was a fun shot. It felt pretty good.”

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The Lakers are 9-5 since Odom went down, including the game in which he was injured, a victory at Houston.... With his 900th win now secure, Phil Jackson is ninth in career NBA victories. Dick Motta is eighth with 935 victories and Red Auerbach is seventh with 938.

TONIGHT

at Memphis, 5 PST, Channel 9

Site -- FedEx Forum.

Radio -- 570; 1330.

Records -- Lakers 23-11; Grizzlies 8-27.

Record vs. Grizzlies -- 1-0.

Update -- Lamar Odom had 20 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists when the Lakers beat Memphis, 91-81, Nov. 12 at Staples Center. Kobe Bryant had 20 points on seven-for-17 shooting.

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