In our season-ending chat with Mitch Kupchak, the Lakers GM stuck to his earlier assessment that the team has earned the benefit of the doubt until the playoffs are over.
“At the end of the day, we’re not talking about an inexperienced roster or coaching staff, he said. “This team, based on what they’ve accomplished and not just recently deserves the chance to go into the playoffs and make any adjustments that they feel necessary. We all know that no matter what happened 10 days ago or three weeks ago, everybody will be evaluated based on how the season ends.”
That’s something Phil Jackson and his coaching staff, as well as Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher and the rest of the players recognize.
Sure, Jackson wasn’t pleased that the team (57-25) failed to win 60 games, but he acknowledged some of the reasons, namely health and an impatience for the second season to start.
The expectation within the team is that Kobe Bryant will figure out how to manage the fractured right index finger that led him to sit out the team’s final two games (“Come on man … He’s Kobe,” Lamar Odom might say). But when L.A. went without either Pau Gasol or Andrew Bynum (both missed 17 games) the team’s record was 19-13 (59%). When both played, the Lakers were 38-12 (76%).
And against the Lakers first round opponent, the youthful Oklahoma City Thunder led by the league’s top scorer in Kevin Durant, Bynum – who is expected to start after successfully working out for the first time since straining his Achilles on March 19 – averaged 19.3 points on just 11.7 shots in three regular season wins for L.A. He didn’t play in the team’s March 26 loss.
Bynum’s return allows Lamar Odom to go back to the bench, generally solidifying the Lakers. Yet perhaps the team’s biggest advantage is the experience not just of the team but of 10-time coaching champion Phil Jackson, who goes head-to-head with OKC’s Scott Brooks, coaching in his first playoff series.
With that in mind, we sat down for a video chat with assistant coach Jim Cleamons to break down the series with OKC, looked back at the team’s four regular season games and previewed each individual matchup, position-by-position, to make sure you’re all set as L.A. embarks on mission title defense.
“At the end of the day, we’re not talking about an inexperienced roster or coaching staff, he said. “This team, based on what they’ve accomplished and not just recently deserves the chance to go into the playoffs and make any adjustments that they feel necessary. We all know that no matter what happened 10 days ago or three weeks ago, everybody will be evaluated based on how the season ends.”
That’s something Phil Jackson and his coaching staff, as well as Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher and the rest of the players recognize.
Sure, Jackson wasn’t pleased that the team (57-25) failed to win 60 games, but he acknowledged some of the reasons, namely health and an impatience for the second season to start.
The expectation within the team is that Kobe Bryant will figure out how to manage the fractured right index finger that led him to sit out the team’s final two games (“Come on man … He’s Kobe,” Lamar Odom might say). But when L.A. went without either Pau Gasol or Andrew Bynum (both missed 17 games) the team’s record was 19-13 (59%). When both played, the Lakers were 38-12 (76%).
And against the Lakers first round opponent, the youthful Oklahoma City Thunder led by the league’s top scorer in Kevin Durant, Bynum – who is expected to start after successfully working out for the first time since straining his Achilles on March 19 – averaged 19.3 points on just 11.7 shots in three regular season wins for L.A. He didn’t play in the team’s March 26 loss.
Bynum’s return allows Lamar Odom to go back to the bench, generally solidifying the Lakers. Yet perhaps the team’s biggest advantage is the experience not just of the team but of 10-time coaching champion Phil Jackson, who goes head-to-head with OKC’s Scott Brooks, coaching in his first playoff series.
With that in mind, we sat down for a video chat with assistant coach Jim Cleamons to break down the series with OKC, looked back at the team’s four regular season games and previewed each individual matchup, position-by-position, to make sure you’re all set as L.A. embarks on mission title defense.
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