Call it winning ugly, unsightly victories or just plain lucky breaks. But for all the hand-wringing going on around about the Lakers' fourth-quarter lapses, they are 11-1 and confident of notching more victories.
"Obviously our coaches don't want us to get complacent," Derek Fisher said Monday. "As a team, we don't want to become complacent. But I think you have to realistic about playing 100-plus games in a season. "There are going to be those ups and downs, but we are capable of playing better games than poor ones. And even with those downs, we know that we can still win."
The Lakers suffered through one of those late-game defensive breakdowns against Sacramento's aggressive backcourt on Sunday but recovered in time to pull out a 10-point victory.
They face a similar team in tonight when they play the New Jersey Nets at Staples Center.
The Nets are led by Vince Carter, who is averaging 24.3 points, and Devin Harris at 23.2 points. Second-year player Yi Jianlian scored a season-high 27 in a victory Saturday against the Clippers.
"They have good shooters at the wings and active centers, so it's not going to be easy to contain them," Phil Jackson said. "They are similar to what Sacramento presented."
Fisher said the Nets' solid backcourt is typical of many Eastern Conference teams.
"We expect a lot of what they offensively will be doing is to have those guys score off a screen roll, and our defense has to be geared more towards stopping that penetration," Fisher said.
Jackson said there isn't any reason to panic about the Lakers' slip-ups in the waning minutes of games. He suggested the problems Sunday were caused by turnovers and a couple of hot hands of the Kings, but he did concentrate on shoring up the team's defense during Monday's practice.
The Lakers committed 18 turnovers Sunday that the Kings converted into 30 points.
"They came out there with some guys who caught fire, got really hot," Jackson said.
"We had a 19-point lead, turned the ball over a couple of times and lost some of that lead. That will happen.
"These are young men that feel very confident in what they are doing. They've had success. So it's not unusual to relax a little bit."
Kobe Bryant also tried to calm any concerns, saying that while it's important for the Lakers to, "keep our eyes on the prize, we have to understand that we have to get better. It's not just about winning games. We have to get better.
"It's not that big a deal. We'll play better tomorrow."
Western DOMINANCE
The Lakers are the only team in the league with a single loss. In the West, all other teams have at least five losses. ...
The showdown between Bryant and Carter pits the league's Nos. 5 and 6 top scorers. Bryant is averaging 24.7 points, while Carter is averaging 24.3 points a game. ...
The Lakers continue to dominate teams, with a 13.3-point average margin of victory.
