HOUSTON - Pau Gasol frowned the way he does when he knows what should’ve been done but wasn’t.

Lamar Odom spoke with resignation instead of inspiration. Luke Walton sat glumly a long time in front of his locker, even after being done dressing, and wound up trying to hash some things out with Derek Fisher, who has been hitting the wrong notes longer than anyone.

Where the Lakers are now after losing Thursday night in Houston weighs on those guys — veterans all and key members of last season’s Western Conference championship team. It would be no surprise whatsoever for all four of them to come up big Sunday in a do-or-die Game 7, because there’s nothing like life experience to help people deal with the prospect of death.

Then there are Kobe Bryant’s other teammates, the ones who were between the ages of 12 and 16 the last time the Lakers played a Game 7 at home in 2000. They charmed everyone this season into believing they were both good and ready, yet now there’s wonder … and we’re talking about the skeptical-that-Andrew-Bynum-can-man-up kind of wonder, not the wow-Shannon-Brown-and-Jordan Farmar-can-sure-jump-high kind of wonder.

Bynum has been the catastrophe of the postseason, even taking into account he’s coming off injury and shouldn’t have faced such lofty expectations this spring. He looks like a rookie out there with all the rushed shots and step-slow movements with a bottom-line appearance of someone who just does not really know what he is doing out there.

And considering that Odom did not require the pain-killing shot before Game 6 that he got just before Game 5 for his bruised lower back, there’s every reason to believe Odom will be better by Sunday to start Game 7 ahead of Bynum.

Indeed, the Lakers probably win Game 7 if Gasol and Odom are poised while Bynum hesitates.

If Fisher finds his rhythm, Farmar and Brown don’t have to. If Walton is strong, Trevor Ariza can be skinny. If Bryant is on, Sasha Vujacic’s Machine can stay off.

All the Lakers’ youngsters have been scared or stupid at significant times this postseason, so they might well be Sunday, too.

But they should be told this much: Whoever has the daring and focus to play great in such a tough spot will catapult his career forward. Do something no one expects you to do, and it will be noticed on a global level.

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This is a series in which Houston’s Shane Battier got a text message from his former Duke teammate Reggie Love, who now is a member of President Barack Obama’s staff, to tell Battier that Obama was impressed by how Battier led his teammates to that first Yao Ming-less victory over the Lakers.

But that was Game 4. This will be Game 7. What will the Lakers’ kids do?

Will they be the kids they were in Game 6? When Ariza messed up the spacing and then the location of his pass on the Lakers’ first play intended to get Bynum an easy confidence-building basket? When Farmar was so sick of playing with Vujacic after his latest forced missed shot that he actually complained to Phil Jackson and upon seeing Brown at the scorer’s table to replace Vujacic actually nodded in relief before muttering an expletive?

The most talented is Bynum, but he looks like an overgrown eighth-grader.

The best statistically has been Brown, but he’s playing the least.

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The most experienced is Vujacic, but he can’t hit a shot.

The hottest is Farmar, but he’s still getting criticized and benched by the coach.

The most useful has been Ariza, but he was right at the heart of the ridiculously slow starts in the past two losses.

Maybe none of them is ready for Game 7. If that’s the case, probably none of them is ready to become a champion.

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