Mike D’Antoni debuts with a win at the Los Angeles Lakers: NBA News
Ever since Mike D’ Antonio took the reins of Los Angeles Lakers, he has one clear objective on his mind and that is to make the Lakers the best team in the league. He has got the ability to do that plus he has got a lot of time
on his side.
Lakers may not have gotten off to a start they would have wanted, they are 6-5 after the win over the Brooklyn Nets, but D’Antoni is a very patient guy.
"What do we got, 72 more games?" D'Antoni said. "The only thing we can't do right now is win more than 77. We got plenty of time, plenty of time."
D’Antoni is no mood to rush also because he is recovering from a knee replacement surgery which kept him away from the court for a while.
On Tuesday night he was finally able to go on the bench and coach their game against the Brooklyn Nets at the Staples Center. Every coach dreams of a win in his debut game and Lakers gave their new coach a perfect welcome at the
club by edging past the Nets 95-90. It was not the most convincing of efforts from the Lakers as they shot just 19 out of 37 free throws on the night but it was just enough to give D’Antoni a win he so wanted.
The Lakers had a poor start to the season and were down 1-4 because of the failure of coach Mike Brown’s Princeton offensive tactics. The interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff started transitioning the team to the new system which has
started to produce results immediately. The Lakers have now won 5 out of their last 6 games. Though it’s hardly been a week since he has moved here but D’Antoni has already started feeling at home.
"This is special," he said before the game. "It's a special place. I'm going to try to do my best to take care of it the best I can. Anybody who plays here is privileged, and anybody who coaches here is privileged. We'll treat
it that way."
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