Coach Phil Jackson encourages Los Angeles Lakers to come out of 2-0 hole – NBA Play-offs Update
The Los Angeles Lakers who were the second seed of the Western Conference and won the first-round quarter-finals 4-2 against the New Orleans Hornets are now looking erratic in the second-round of the play-offs.
The Lakers are two down in the best of the seven game series against the third seeded Dallas Mavericks. The team squeaked past the Lakers 96-94 in the Game 1 on Monday night and then on Wednesday All-Star Dirk Nowitzki lifted the Mavs over them in a 93-81
victory.
Twenty four hours later the defeated Los Angeles looked confident, happy and rather defiant, as they took part in Thursday’s practice session.
While describing the current situation Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson said, "I'd like to cry, but I can't right now. It's a game and we know it's a game. When we play it, we play it hard and we anticipate winning in Dallas."
From Los Angeles practice it seemed that they had worked on their deficiencies, as they spent their major time on working their defensive rotations and pick and roll during the session. Because in Game 2 they allowed Mavericks’ guard Jose Barea to chalk
up eight points along with two assists in the final quarter of the game that helped the Mavericks stealing the game away from the Lakers.
Coach Jackson said, "I think there are spaces on the floor that are confusing to our players. There are various spots on the floor that we change our rotation and I think it confused the players where we had to get that straight again to where we have to
be."
Despite the fact that the Lakers are struggling in the series and their small forward Ron Artest was suspended for one game by the league since he hit Barea in the face late in the Game 2. The Lakers looked in a pretty good mood as compared to the previous
weeks.
However, the Lakers have a good track record of pulling through some serious down falls and if they were able to pull the series from here then this would not be the first time they would have done so. Some of their current members have already experienced
such a rally in which they were down 2-0 and went on winning the series.
The Lakers did that back in 2004, beating the San Antonio Spurs in six games at their home after losing the opening two games of their second-round series of the play-offs.
Coach Jackson also encouraged the team to recall some past successes so they can regain their confidence and rely on their ability hence they can make adjustments all the way through the series.
He said, "We just had to pull them up and say, 'Recall Orlando, recall Phoenix, recall some of these things that we've done in the past and maybe you guys will summon back some of the things that you're familiar with.’"
This shows that the Lakers are still confident and will do their best to fight back in spite of a 2-0 hole.
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