ShareThisThey're the worst 21-3 team in the history of professional basketball, at least according to the talk shows, bulletin boards and blogs and the over caffeinated, instant-gratification portion of their fan base.
They haven't even played the Boston Celtics yet -- that ABC matchup is still eight days away -- but they already suffer in comparison. Not as tough, not as efficient, not as defensively sound, etc.
But maybe this is our problem in evaluating the Los Angeles Lakers: we fail to incorporate boredom into the equation.
Not ours, theirs.
Can we stipulate, please, that the Lakers are vastly superior to most of the people they've been playing lately? And may I submit that maybe they haven't always looked dominant because they haven't always felt challenged?
Tuesday night against the Knicks could be exhibit A. For much of the first half, they seemed to forget that this was the same spread-the-floor, drive-and-kick-for-a-three-pointer offensive style they'd seen four times a year from the Phoenix Suns before Mike D'Antoni changed jobs.
Maybe it took that 15-point halftime deficit to slap them in the face. Certainly the Lakers were more energized and far more solid defensively in the second half of their 116-114 victory.
"It was a challenging game," Phil Jackson said. "I think we anticipated that as a staff, but I don't think our players anticipated that kind of a ballgame."
Sure, in a perfect world they wouldn't need external motivation. They do get paid handsomely. And they should still remember the embarrassment of Game 6 of the Finals in Boston in June, a low point and a lesson that Kobe Bryant maintained "we still carry with us."
But the season is long. Memories can be short. And sometimes it takes something special to get players' attention -- a marquee opponent, or a dose of potential adversity like the four-game, five-night road trip that begins Friday in Miami.
That trip will not be a gimme. Miami and Memphis are winnable games. But Orlando and New Orleans are dangerous, and each is the second half of a back-to-back.
And two days after New Orleans, they get the Celtics at home. In short, this is no time to coast.
"The NBA's a process," Jackson said before Tuesday's game. "A marathon is what you're running, and you're going to have games where you have to raise up to a certain level of competition. You have to go to another gear."
They also have to work their way through fatigue, injuries and sickness, as Jackson noted. It would be nice to beat everybody handily and give the starters plenty of rest, but it's not practical.
Also, close games are not necessarily bad. They're an opportunity to hone skills that could be needed later against the Bostons and San Antonios.
D'Antoni was amused by the level of discontent surrounding the Lakers.
"They're 21-3, 20-3, whatever they are," he said before the game. "You guys need to lighten up a little bit. That's pretty good."
It's an old saying, but still accurate: They don't ask how, they ask how many.
"My championship rings only have won-loss on them," Derek Fisher said. "They don't have margin of victory, they don't have field goal percentage, they don't have how many points you gave up."
So, until they add style points to the NBA standings, maybe it's best for Lakers fans to not compare their team's every twitch to what the Celtics are doing.
It'll be better for everyone's mental health.
(Contact Jim Alexander at jalexander@pe.com)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
ColumnMust credit The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.
