The star point guard who has seamlessly settled into the Lakers lineup after a 24 game absence is sure that the team will consistently start living up to its billing soon enough ....
Not so long ago, the Los Angeles Lakers, a side which was billed as the most formidable answer to the Miami Heat’s dominance after a block buster summer, was 9-14 into the season, and were struggling to get a ‘W’ even with their leader Kobe Bryant scoring like a beast day in and day out – till then, the Los Angeles Lakers were 1-11 in games Bryant scored 30 or more.
That was a time when the Lakers painted a disastrous picture and Mike D’Antoni’s hiring was appearing as an experiment gone horribly wrong. Then came the game against the lowly Washington Wizards, and the Lakers finally won. Next up, they won against the under manned Philadelphia 76ers and then barely scrapped through against the Charlotte Bobcats.
Entering last Saturday, the Lakers had won three straight games, their longest streak thus far, but there was still an air of uncertainty about them. And, the focus was still on the return of Steve Nash, the star point guard who had been nursing a non displaced fracture in his left leg since Oct.31.
Nash returned against the Warriors, and the Lakers won again, albeit in overtime. But, all of a sudden, they seemed complete. And that was further confirmed in the 100-94 win against the New York Knicks on Tuesday night. Nash got the Lakers going down the stretch, scoring or assisting on 12 of the last 15 points for his team. The performance pretty much laid rest to doubt that Nash would initially struggle to adjust in the new team.
The guard who finished with 16 points, 11 assists and six rebounds, later said that the players might be unfamiliar but all of them are war hardened veterans and delivering in crunch times is their instinct. That very instinct, Nash believes, will take the Lakers forward;
"The players are unfamiliar, but the situation is similar," said Nash,. "We're trying to feel each other out and figure that out. ... I try to be aggressive in those situations and try to make a play for my teammates or free myself up for a shot to take pressure off my teammates. I think we still are trying to find that understanding and that kind of know-how that a veteran, or at least a seasoned team has. But while it comes, we've done a good job of keeping it simple."
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