This was supposed to be as wide open a Western Conference playoffs as we’ve ever seen — but the Lakers are ruining all the fun.

Midway through the second round, the operative question out West is whether anyone can stop the Lakers show. The West’s top seed has rolled through its first six games, using precision ball movement and the individual brilliance of Kobe Bryant to inflict a “Rocky Horror” attack on Denver and Utah.

The six wins raise L.A.’s record to a jaw-dropping 28-4 in games Pau Gasol has played (excluding a three-minute outing in which he sprained his ankle). If anything, the club appears to be gaining steam. With Bryant sharing the ball as willingly as he has his entire career, and an army of deadly shot-makers around him, defenses have been left completely befuddled.

The latest victim is Utah, who was supposed to provide the Lakers with a stern test in the second round, but so far has only served to magnify how deadly L.A. has become. The Lakers beat the Jazz by 10 and 11 points in the first two games of the series, and as usual, it’s the hyperefficient offense that’s been the focal point.

The Jazz have no answer for Bryant, who scored 34 and 38 points in the first two games — and, for good measure, collected his first-ever MVP trophy in between.

This could be dealt with by double-teaming him, except for one little problem: The Jazz have no answers for his teammates, either. The Lakers have scored a combined 229 points in the first two games because L.A. has received so many quality contributions from Bryant’s supporting cast.

To wit:

Gasol has combined for 38 points and 10 assists in the first two games, taking advantage of mostly single coverage against Utah big men who can’t match his dexterity in the paint.

Lamar Odom routinely beat Carlos Boozer off the dribble in Game 2 to finish with 19 points on just 10 shot attempts. He had 16 points and three assists in the first game, which ain’t too shabby for a third wheel getting by with fewer touches than ever.

Derek Fisher burned his former team from long range in Game 2, making four of five 3-pointers en route to a 22-point night.

Even the scrubs got into it. Reserve wing Sasha Vujacic has 27 points in 37 minutes in the two games. Backup point guard Jordan Farmar has 4 points in 21.

Here’s the most amazing stat from the Lakers’ playoffs, though, and the reason why their opponents are so completely befuddled: They’re hitting every open 3. Through the first six games, Lakers players not named Kobe are hitting a phenomenal 46.3% from downtown. That means teams can’t get away with sending extra defenders at Bryant, let alone Gasol.

Overall, the Lakers’ offense has been a ruthless machine. My Offensive Efficiency rating (a measure of a team’s points scored per 100 possessions) has them at 114.2 for the playoffs, well beyond the league-leading 111.2 mark that the Suns put up in the regular season. In other words, they’ve been an absolutely dominant offensive team during these playoffs.

Obviously, the strength of the supporting cast is a huge reason. In addition to the players mentioned above, reserve forward Luke Walton was awesome in the first-round series win over Denver, backup center Ronny Turiaf has been outstanding in limited minutes, and flaky forward Vladimir Radmanovic has helped punish defenses with his 3-point shooting.

But the biggest reason may be the transformation of Bryant, who in one short season has gone from the league’s top prima donna to the league’s MVP. It’s hard to remember now, but at the start of the year, Bryant was demanding a trade because he was so down on the rest of his team, and the Lakers fans booed him in an opening-night loss to Houston.

But once Bryant saw that his teammates were up to the task, he made a remarkable transformation — one that was completed when L.A. pulled off the grand larceny of acquiringGasol from Memphis. Afterward, Bryant essentially admitted he was much better off than he would have been if he’d gotten his wish and been traded to the lottery-bound Bulls or Knicks.

Instead, Bryant has become not just a dominant scorer and a fierce competitor, but a player who finally “gets it.” In the days when he shared the spotlight with Shaq, Kobe yearned to be the one who got all the glory, and arguably cared more about that than wins and losses.

Now, the complete opposite is true. He’s finally realized that recognition will come his way only with team success, and in keeping with that, he was awarded the league’s MVP award before Game 2 on Wednesday. (Full disclosure: I had endorsed Chris Paul, but certainly Bryant belonged in the discussion.)

And once that happened, esprit de corps spread like wildfire through the Lakers team. It helps having great passers such as Odom and Gasol in the frontcourt. But watching the Lakers whirl the ball around for an open layup is both a dizzying and exhilarating experience. Everybody is willing to give it up now, because they know they have a good chance of getting it back.

Bryant made it happen, though, when he changed his mind-set from Kobe dominating the game to the Lakers dominating the game. It’s made his team completely difficult to guard, and has turned the Western Conference playoffs into a coronation. What’s scary is they might be even better next year, if center Andrew Bynum can return from a worrisome knee injury.

This series isn’t over yet, and there’s still a round left to play. Certainly Utah could show a much tougher side in Friday’s Game 3, now that they’re playing on a home court where they’ve lost only five times all year.

But even if the Jazz hit the Lakers with their first playoff loss, one can’t help but sense the inevitable: that Bryant’s evolution into a team-first guy is going to be what propels the Lakers to their first conference title since Shaq left.

jhollinger@nysun.com