The Lakers are turning the aphorism inside out.

It isn’t about the journey, it’s the destination.

Don’t ask them how they’re getting to the Western Conference (and NBA?) finals? Don’t inquire about the backtracking, missed exits and awkward U-turns and having to ask for directions.

Just ask the Lakers if they are getting where they want to go. And, yes, they are close to doing that, even if the trip has been anything but a straight line.

The Lakers tonight did to the Houston Rockets what they should have done to them back in Houston, in Game 4 on Sunday, destroying them 118-78 at Staples Center.

And now they are one victory from the Western Conference  finals, presumably against Denver.

Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 26 points — despite sitting out the entire fourth quarter of a game that was as much garbage time as game time.

He said he assumes nothing, which probably is a good frame of mind for the leader of a team that was 65-17 in the regular season but has been stunningly inconsistent in the playoffs so far.

“You just got to stay focused and you have to understand that the effort that we did tonight is not going to be enough on Thursday (in Houston),” he said. “It’s just not. So you go to pick it up and bring more energy, bring more effort, because that’s what the playoffs are about. Each game, you have to raise your level.”

The Lakers were awful just two days before, trailing by as many as 29 points en route to a 99-86 defeat in Game 4, a defeat that knotted the series at 2-2.

Then came Tuesday’s blowout in the other direction.

What happened?

“We  just made adjustments, really,” Bryant said. “The last game they played a different style, a little bit more up-tempo, spread the floor a little bit. Penetration hurt us and they got off to a quick start and we never recovered.”

One of those adjustments Tuesday was starting Andrew Bynum with Pau Gasol under the basket, and bringing Lamar Odom, who was dinged up in Game 4, off the bench.

Bynum just planted himself in the lane, not bothering to guard Chuck Hayes, the replacement for the injured Yao Ming, turning the Rockets into a perimeter team again.

“I think Bynum had a great performane and gave them a good boost,” Shane Battier said.  “They played with more passion and energy.”

Landry said the Rockets won’t just go away, on Thursday.

“There won’t be any carryover,” he said. “You won’t see anything like this in two days. We’ll be ready. We know if we don’t we go home, so we’re going to give it everything we’ve got.”

“There are seven games,” Ron Artest said. “That is the thing about the playoffs; there are seven games. It’s not like football, where there’s one game, so you can only stay positive.

“Now we are going to come back (to Los Angeles) in Game 7. We are going to know what to expect and how to play and have the energy to win.”

Lakers coach Phil Jackson, like Bryant, was anything but triumphant.

“I told the team that was really a terrific effort, a great win, but it doesn’t do anything but just mean we brought home the seventh game,” he said, “guaranteed ourselves home-court advantage in this series. And that’s what it’s all about, that win.”