Mike Segar / Reuters

The Lakers are one talented bunch, but not so good they don't need the occasional wake up call. The team's recent slide gives coach Phil Jackson a chance to work his motivational magic.

But even Jackson needs attention-getting devices. And until hitting this Denver-Phoenix speed bump, the Lakers were beyond thinking they needed extra work and motivation. They were treating the rest of the league like its personal piñata. Going into Denver, they’d lost just once in 14 games and twice in 19. They’d lost center Bynum, and that was supposed to finish their title hopes. But going into Denver, they were 11-1 without him. And among those wins were major victories at Boston and Cleveland.

Teams that experience runs like that tend to start to think they can’t be beaten, and sometimes nothing a coach tells them can shake that thought. When Jackson was in Chicago, that Michael Jordan fellow saw to it that the Bulls never thought they were unbeatable. In Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant has Jordanesque talent, but he doesn’t exert the same kind of control over the team’s psyche that Jordan did. The Lakers this year have tossed in back-to-back losses three times now — and each episode came after a lengthy streak of utter dominance. The first time it happened was on Dec. 19-20 at Miami and Orlando after a 14-2 run. The Lakers followed it with a 10-1 run that ended with losses on Jan. 14 and 16 to the Spurs and Magic. The current pair of losses follows a 17-2 run.

They seem to be a team that can take prosperity, but not forever.

Hence the need for teaching moments. After scoring just 79 points in the 11-point loss to Denver, Jackson reportedly told his players they still aren’t playing together as the team he wants them to be. He used the loss as an excuse to put the Lakers through a grueling practice during which he ordered them through an unending series of wind sprints.

Now, the loss to the Suns and former Lakers star Shaquille O’Neal gives Jackson another example that proves his point. The Grizzlies are next on the Los Angeles menu — this Tuesday. Feel free to start feeling sorry for Memphis in advance along with the next dozen teams the Lakers play.

Jackson has their attention again, and you can bet he’s going to make the most of it. And if the Lakers end the year planting wet ones on David Stern’s big golden basketball, they find themselves looking back to back-to-back losses against Denver and Phoenix as one of the moments that forged a championship and cemented Phil Jackson as the greatest NBA coach ever.

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