96-94 loss in Orlando<\/a> on Sunday afternoon, Kobe Bryant may have already summed things up.<\/p>\n\u201cWe didn\u2019t win the game but I saw what I wanted to see,\u201d he said of a game he was within an inch of tying with a late jumper. \u201cIf we play with this type of effort, it will be hard for a team to beat us four times in a series. Here we competed and we have to take this mindset and this attitude and push it forward to the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryant echoed some of those same sentiments after Monday\u2019s practice, adding that sometimes during the regular season in particular, the team’s issue is more mental than physical. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very talented and we know what we\u2019re capable of doing,\u201d he explained. \u201cSometimes you don\u2019t believe you can lose until it actually happens. It sneaks up on you, and that\u2019s something that we can\u2019t allow to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of that sneaking up has to do with many of L.A.\u2019s opponents, especially on the road, giving the defending champions their best shot. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not surprising that you\u2019re the defending world champions, you\u2019re the Lakers, it\u2019s going to be higher intensity, higher pressure,\u201d said Derek Fisher. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have sell outs, which is (not always the case) before we get there \u2026 It\u2019s just part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to say that the Lakers wouldn\u2019t like to improve, especially when it comes to simple execution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ball has to move more,\u201d said Pau Gasol of L.A.\u2019s offense. \u201cThat\u2019s going to give us a better rhythm, better looks, easier shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have to execute better, knock down shots,\u201d added Bryant. \u201cWe\u2019re getting shots that we want, really good looks, they\u2019re (just not) falling for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lakers are confident that the final 18 games will provide ample opportunity to ramp things up leading into the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have to get it together on both ends of the floor,\u201d said the Spaniard. \u201cWith this team, the players that we have here and the coaching staff, we shouldn\u2019t lose.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s first chance to show with a result what they know in their heads they can do comes Tuesday against the Toronto Raptors at STAPLES Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since the Lakers lost three straight games for the first time since acquiring Pau Gasol in February of 2008, the players and coach Phil Jackson knew they\u2019d have to answer a round of \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong\u201d questions when arriving back in Los Angeles. Yet after L.A.\u2019s 96-94 loss in Orlando on Sunday afternoon, Kobe Bryant may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4162,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"58932097\"](\"http:\/\/my.lakers.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/team_500.jpg\" "\\"58932097\\"")
Since the Lakers lost three straight games for the first time since acquiring Pau Gasol in February of 2008, the players and coach Phil Jackson knew they\u2019d have to answer a round of \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong\u201d questions when arriving back in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n