What a weird series.

One team was clearly better in all seven games. Massively better, six games out of seven.

Asked what he learned from the Lakers’ series with the Rockets, Kobe Bryant said, “That we’re bipolar.”

He wasn’t kidding.

In only one game was the margin of victory fewer than 12 points. In only one game did the lead change hands in the fourth quarter, and that was Game 1, when the Lakers held a one-point lead for the 19 seconds that ran down to 8:05. The final 3:15 of that game, the Lakers never were closer than six.

I’m not sure I can recall a series in which the teams took turns looking thoroughly superior. If not absolutely dominant.

You can chalk up some of the massive swings to the home/road dynamic … but the Rockets won once in Los Angeles (Game 1), and fairly easily … and the Lakers won once in Houston (Game 3), and quite easily.

Still, Phil Jackson suggested it did come down, mostly, to home court. “I’m confident we can go out and win a game on the road,” he said. “But multiple wins on the road are not easy to do. There’s the preparations you make, but there’s the reality of coming out and doing it.”

Shane Battier, the Rockets’ designated Kobe-stopper, espoused a similar view. “For Game 7, on their court, we knew they would give us their big shot, especially in first quarter,” Battier said. “We just didn’t have the energy to match it. We turned the ball over and they got in transition. We didn’t move well enough to get good shots.”

He talked about the “different levels of activity” by the teams, usually depending on who was the home team. And he gave the Lakers some cover from critics who thought they should have mopped up the Rockets once they lost Yao Ming, in Game 3.

“It’s not just specific to the Lakers,” Battier said. “Every team plays different at home — more energy and ball movement. It’s more home/away than anything else.”

Game 7 came down to the Lakers asserting themselves around the rim with their superior size, an advantage they had not taken full advantage of for most of the series.

As noted in an earlier item here today, the Lakers dominated the game behind their two 7-footers (Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum) and a 6-10 guy (Lamar Odom). The Rockets played no one taller than 6-9, and they spent lots of time with a 6-6 guy (Chuck Hayes) trying to check Gasol or Bynum.

The Lakers destroyed the Rockets on the boards (55-33) and The Big Three accounted for 31 rebounds.

Also key, Sunday, was that the Lakers’ big guys successfully denied access to the rim by Houston’s quick little guys, particularly Aaron Brooks. Brooks was 4-for-15 from the field and rarely had an open shot. He also had more turnovers (five) than assists (three), and that kind of stat from your point guard usually means defeat.

The Lakers were fairly good defensively but fairly miserable on offense. Kobe Bryant was particularly underwhelming, scoring 14 points on 4-for-12 shooting, and it looked rather like “Kobe Missin’ Work” one day after Spike Lee’s fawning documentary “Kobe Doin’ Work” aired on ESPN.

But because the Lakers won, Kobe was semi-cheerful. Even if he was only about the fourth-best player on his own team. Gasol was the big gun, with 21 points and 18 rebounds. Trevor Ariza had 15 points, including two early threes that gave the Lakers some separation from the Rockets in the first quarter. And Bynum had 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting.

The Rockets were little better than awful, on offense, and coach Rick Adelman said that “those of you who have watched us know we’ve sometimes struggled to score.”

The Rockets were 28-for-76 from the field (36.8 percent shooting) and while Adelman said that was about the Rockets, Battier suggested the Lakers had something to do with it. “They’re undervalued as a defensive team,” Battier said. “They’re long and they’re quick and if you don’t move the ball well, and try some isolation basketball, you’re going to have a hard time with that.”

Adelman suggested the series had revealed the Lakers’ weaknesses, but when asked to outline them as he suspected the Nuggets’ staff might perceive them, he said he wouldn’t presume to tell the Nuggets how to play the Lakers.

Otherwise, the consensus seemed to be the Lakers’ struggles against a short and short-handed Rockets team doesn’t necessarily mean much, going ahead.

Said Battier: “I think the Lakers are the favorite. Denver hasn’t really been tested. They played a New Orleans team coming apart at the seams, and a Dallas team not having Josh Howard (at full speed). Denver is rolling, but it will be interesting to see how the Nuggets react when they see adversity for the first time.”

The Lakers were 3-1 against the Nuggets in the regular season, and Phil Jackson agreed “we did” have success against them. “But they’re a different team,” he said. “They’re playing with much more confidence and they have roles that have become a much-better defined. Their defense has improved, which is a priority. We know what team we’re facing.”

He rued the Lakers’ lack of time to prepare. “We know we’ll have to go on emotion and energy in the first game, at least,” he said.

Bryant said not too much should be made of struggling against the Rockets.

“Everyone thinks you sweep through every series and win a championship ring,” he said. “Last year we rolled through (the Western Conference) and everybody thought we would win. But then we got mopped up in the final.”

Bryant seemed to suggest that anything that didn’t kill the Lakers only makes them stronger. “It’s good experience to face an elimination game, the see-saw battle of a series, going up and going down. It helps a team come together.”

If see-saw is a good thing … then the Lakers have the Nuggets right where they want them.