Phil J: Road trip is "make or break" for Lakers' season

[CubanMustGo]

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/news/story?id=6183645

LOS ANGELES -- When Los Angeles Lakers (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/clubhouse?team=lal) coach Phil Jackson takes a look at the NBA standings, two things come immediately to mind.

One, the Lakers will play both of the teams ahead of them in the Western Conference standings on their upcoming four-game road trip -- Sunday against first-place San Antonio to start the trip and March 12 against second-place Dallas to end the trip.

And two, including Friday's game against the Charlotte Bobcats (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/clubhouse?team=cha), there are only 20 games remaining in the Lakers' regular-season schedule.

"We're starting to look at the season," Jackson said Friday. "Most every team is underneath 20 games [remaining], so you start looking where people are."

In other words, it's time for the Lakers to make their move on the road [and pray for divine intervention] to secure home-court advantage throughout the playoffs unless they want to be playing on the road in the later rounds of the postseason.

"This trip is really like a make-or-break point of the season for us," Jackson said before the Bobcats game. "If we play really well on this road trip, we have a chance to do things. If we don't, we'll settle in and assume that we're fighting for either second or third place, hopefully."

Going into Friday, the Lakers trailed the Spurs by 7.5 games and the Mavericks by two games. Los Angeles is 0-2 against San Antonio and 0-1 against Dallas so far this season.

Jackson said he is also paying close attention to the Eastern Conference standings, particularly to third-ranked Chicago. Jackson wants to make sure L.A. stays ahead of Chicago in the overall league standings should the Lakers play the Bulls in the Finals, assuring home-court advantage in that scenario. :rolleyes

"You want those matchups, just in case something happens, to be in your advantage so that you have home court," Jackson said.

If the Lakers have to go on the road come playoff time, Jackson would not fret. The Lakers have the third-best road record in the league with a 22-11 mark away from Staples Center this season. [what's their road record against playoff teams, I wonder?]

"I think we're capable of playing well on the road," Jackson said. "We're confident in what we can do. It makes it harder [though]. No doubt about it."

The Lakers' four-game road trip also includes games Tuesday against Atlanta (the No. 5 team in the East) and Thursday against Miami (the No. 2 team in the East).

"It's very important for us to go out here and do what we need to do on this road trip and win these games," Lakers center Andrew Bynum (http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/2748/andrew-bynum) said. "Fortunately, there are not back-to-backs, so we have a day to prepare for each of them. So we really want to win these games, not just for the standings, but to send a message and let everybody know we're here and we're serious."

[Daddy_Of_All_Trolls]

Lakers have had the benefit of HCA in all but 1 series since 2008. Every series they won, they won at least one road game. I see the point though. SA, Dallas, and Boston may be too hard to catch but getting ahead of Miami and Chicago is more doable.

[ElNono]

lol intensive practices and circling dates in the calendar...

Regular season doesn't matter?

[Kyle Orton]

Tbh Jackson is right. LA is 6-0 since the AS break largely because it seems like Artest has turned it on. Jackson knows that if they can win 3 outa 4 of these road trip games it goes a long way in helping them forget about the first half as well as it makes it pretty obvious they were coasting.

[ElNono]

Jackson is also well aware that they haven't won a series without HCA since 2004... they might squeak by a series in the first round, but more than that it's asking for trouble.

[DazedAndConfused]

HCA isn't all its cracked up to be.

The '00-02 3-peat Laker team won several HUGE series without HCA and went on to win 3 titles together. Boston went all the way to the Finals last year and were minutes away from hoisting up the LOB without HCA the whole way through.

If you're a veteran team that's battle tested, HCA is not the end-all-be-all. In fact, the Lakers have blown their HCA advantage many times in the last three seasons and it hasn't mattered one bit. They are fully capable, more so than any team in this league, of going into another team's building and getting that W.

[ElNono]

HCA isn't all its cracked up to be.

The '00-02 3-peat Laker team won several HUGE series without HCA and went on to win 3 titles together. Boston went all the way to the Finals last year and were minutes away from hoisting up the LOB without HCA the whole way through.

None of which are this Lakers team.

HCA is crucial for this team, Jackson knows it, and stated as much in the piece above.

[Kyle Orton]

The only way HCA will matter for LA is if they play Boston in the finals (they might very well lose to the Spurs or Mavs, but it won't be because of HCA). That's a series that's guaranteed to go at least 6 games, so the team with the final 2 games at home has a huge advantage.

[Venti Quattro]

Jackson said he is also paying close attention to the Eastern Conference standings, particularly to third-ranked Chicago. Jackson wants to make sure L.A. stays ahead of Chicago in the overall league standings should the Lakers play the Bulls in the Finals, assuring home-court advantage in that scenario. :rolleyes

Phil Jackson trolling :lmao :lmao :lmao :lmao :lmao

[Nick Manning]

Lakers have had the benefit of HCA in all but 1 series since 2008. Every series they won, they won at least one road game. I see the point though. SA, Dallas, and Boston may be too hard to catch but getting ahead of Miami and Chicago is more doable.

damn, was not aware of that, tbh

[DazedAndConfused]

None of which are this Lakers team.

HCA is crucial for this team, Jackson knows it, and stated as much in the piece above.

Actually it's not if you look at the facts.

Blew HCA against the Rockets, Nuggets, and Celtics in the last two seasons.

Hasn't mattered.

[ElNono]

Actually it's not if you look at the facts.

Blew HCA against the Rockets, Nuggets, and Celtics in the last two seasons.

Hasn't mattered.

Sure it has. Closing out at home was huge.
Fact is this Lakers team can't win it all without HCA. It burns because you know you won't get it this season, but it is what it is.

[#41 Shoot Em Up]

Lakers will beat SA easily. Atlanta and Dallas will pose more
of a challenge.

[Giuseppe]

Lack of HCA is not the death sentence it once was.

We lost it Vs. the Celtics within the 8 quarters last June, and survived to ring.

Phil & Bryant will not ruminate & obsess over it's loss. Professionals don't ruminate & obsess. That's our domain.

[DazedAndConfused]

The bottom line is that teams that chuck 3s, have no size, and play questionable defense never win rings. The spurs don't have what it takes to defeat la or Boston. This is obvious to anyone that knows anything about winning in the NBA.

[TE]

Lakers will beat SA easily. Atlanta and Dallas will pose more
of a challenge.

:lmao

[Giuseppe]

The bottom line is that teams that chuck 3s, have no size, and play questionable defense never win rings. The spurs don't have what it takes to defeat la or Boston. This is obvious to anyone that knows anything about winning in the NBA.

Still & all, I'm as nervous as a queer at a weiner roast about it, Dazed.

[Rummpd]

The bottom line is that teams that chuck 3s, have no size, and play questionable defense never win rings. The spurs don't have what it takes to defeat la or Boston. This is obvious to anyone that knows anything about winning in the NBA.


Spurs have the best PF of all time resting for the playoffs and a higher defensive efficiency than the Lakers so dream on LAL lovers.

[Rummpd]

Mavs also living on borrowed time with that pathetic 4 point differential.

[#41 Shoot Em Up]

Spurs have the best PF of all time

:lol

[jjktkk]

The bottom line is that teams that chuck 3s, have no size, and play questionable defense never win rings. The spurs don't have what it takes to defeat la or Boston. This is obvious to anyone that knows anything about winning in the NBA.

Spurs chuck 3's and make them, Kobe forgets his teammates and just chucks and misses them. The question is which kind of chucking you prefer. :lol

[Rummpd]

At least Spurs don't have to play zone to play defense. Mavs are so over-rated with one of the lowest point differential of a team winning a lot of games in history -Mavs last time they had that lost as an 8th seed and last year with similar low point differential were blew away by the Spurs in the playoffs.

[YoMamaIsCallin]

HCA is nothing close to a critical factor in a series. Historically, teams with HCA win more series, but that's really because they are better teams and won more games in the regular season, not due to some magical HCA advantage.

Look at it this way. The first six games of a series are split 3-3 home and away. Only a game 7 really matters with HCA. in fact, if you have HCA, there's a huge onus on you to win games 1 and 2 at home, whereas if you don't have HCA, and you steal one of those, you're good to go - if you win out at home, you win the series.

[Splits]

Lakers are a very good road team. See here: http://espn.go.com/nba/recap?id=310216005

Also, one of those "road" losses was @Clippers, which is really a home game. So they actually only have 10 road losses.

[cherylsteele]

Lakers will beat SA easily. Atlanta and Dallas will pose more
of a challenge.
Atlanta??? Atlanta is greatly over-rated.
Just saying that kills any credibility you have.

[ElNono]

The bottom line is that teams that chuck 3s, have no size, and play questionable defense never win rings. The spurs don't have what it takes to defeat la or Boston. This is obvious to anyone that knows anything about winning in the NBA.

The bottom line is that LA has too many miles on those legs, the bench is a lot worse than years past and without the obvious advantage of home court they're not going anywhere. They had a good run though...

Phil is spot on... if they're lucky they'll be fighting for 3rd place...

[ChuckD]

I've thought of Phil in many ways over the years: arrogant, condescending, glory grabbing from both players and coaches. I've never thought of him as delusional until now.

Phil? You're playing for 2nd/3rd no matter what happens on this roadie. If you wanted the top spot, you should have woken up those lazy-ass overrated aging players on your squad about 15 January.

[John Basedow]

I've thought of Phil in many ways over the years: arrogant, condescending, glory grabbing from both players and coaches. I've never thought of him as delusional until now.

Phil? You're playing for 2nd/3rd no matter what happens on this roadie. If you wanted the top spot, you should have woken up those lazy-ass overrated aging players on your squad about 15 January.

You're never overrated when you're the b2b defending champs.

Fucking dumbass :lmao

[ChuckD]

You're never overrated when you're the b2b defending champs.

Fucking dumbass :lmao

This roster isn't close to any of the last three years, yet Laker nation and the press are doing their usual knob slobbering. Over rated.

[mingus]

LA is better than SA if they play to their strengths, which they will not do. This will be the year Kobe and his cum chuggers learn the hard way that LA has to play inside out to win against a legitimate contender. Should learned last year but Perk went down.

[usdane]

LA is better than SA if they play to their strengths, which they will not do. This will be the year Kobe and his cum chuggers learn the hard way that LA has to play inside out to win against a legitimate contender. Should learned last year but Perk went down.

Bynum has looked strait up dominant on D lately he had 6 blocks, 17-18 rebounds and countless altered shoots on Friday. I think he is the key.

[TE]

Bynum has looked strait up dominant on D lately he had 6 blocks, 17-18 rebounds and countless altered shoots on Friday. I think he is the key.

He is one of the x-factors. If Bynum is to get into foul trouble, I think it'll be a long day for Lakerfan.

[TE]

He is one of the x-factors. If Bynum is to get into foul trouble, I think it'll be a long day for Lakerfan.

OR afternoon I should say.

[usdane]

He is one of the x-factors. If Bynum is to get into foul trouble, I think it'll be a long day for Lakerfan.

I agree to a degree. My biggest concern is stopping PG penetration.