For the second consecutive season, Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni has shown resistance toward starting a big lineup.

The characters this time don’t involve Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol. They include Shawne Williams and Chris Kaman.

Kaman overcame conditioning issues stemmed from a nine-day absence stemmed from a stomach ailment by posting double-digit efforts in two games off the bench in an average of 19 minutes. Meanwhile, Williams has scored three points on six shot attempts through two games in an average of 12 minutes.

Yet, D’Antoni maintains he won’t change the starting frontcourt when the Lakers play tonight against the San Antonio Spurs at Staples Center.

“If we would evaluate the team play by stats then yeah,” D’Antoni said. “But we don’t do that because we’re trying to connect. Everything has a purpose. One of the reasons [Kaman’s] doing well stat wise is he plays a lot of five. You have to have a blueprint going in with a team you’re playing. we have to have other guys playing better. There’s no doubt about it.

But at the same time, I still like the 4 being spread. It’s better for Steve Nash and Steve Blake. Chris will get his stats no matter what. We have to be careful. I’m not discounting it. We can keep revisiting, but it’s early to know whether it’s not working.”

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter. E-mail him at mark.medina@dailynews.com