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| | Monday, February 14 | |||||
Special to ESPN.com | ||||||
Right man at the right place at the right time.
The Lakers always talked a good defensive game. But under Jackson, who stressed defense in Chicago when Michael Jordan was leading them to six titles, they're finally playing championship-level D. The Lakers have been the top defensive board team in the league, in addition to limiting opponents' field goal percentage to around 40 perecent, down from 44 percent a year ago. All told, they've gone from the bottom five in NBA rankings to a top-five team in a category that's the foundation for all champions. "Defense wins," Jackson said. "The first thing is conditioning. One of the great statements by (Vince) Lomardi is that fatigue makes cowards of us all. It's true, because when you're tired, you can't have the same attitude that you have when you're in condition. "But you're also only as good as your weakest defensive link. We were a good defensive team in Chicago. But we also had some guys who didn't have really good defensive skills. But we were able to cover up for them because of our team attitude. That's what makes good defensive teams. They'll help each other out." 2. Jackson is driving Shaquille O'Neal to the MVP award and maybe his first ring Shaq's playing the best ball of his life, so much so that Jackson is off his early-season kick of demanding that executive VP Jerry West go out and trade for a top-flight power forward. The way Shaq has been tearing up opponents, Jackson sees that the team can win big in its present state. It wasn't Zen that Jackson used to stoke O'Neal's fires. It was a sharp needle. He got under Shaq's skin early with comments like: "you can't be a leader unless you make your free throws." Jackson has made O'Neal accountable, something Del Harris and Kurt Rambis failed to do. Rather than turning Jackson off, Shaq has embraced Jackson's blunt criticisms, as he promised he would before the season started. Nothing like an earful to get some motivation. In the past, Shaq had turned off coaches who weren't helping him win a ring. With Jackson, he's been all ears. It's a classic case of a superstar player responding to a superstar coach. "I like like getting my butt kicked," O'Neal said. "It makes me work harder. I don't know why other coaches wouldn't do it." The answer: Because they feared for their jobs. Shaq has approached Jackson differently, too. Jackson came to L.A. exhibiting the kind of jewelry Shaq wants, has never gotten and has been repeatedly ripped by critics for not possessing. "I'm no dummy," O'Neal said. "When a guy's won six rings, you listen to him." 3. Kobe Bryant has fit the triangle to a T After a preseason injury and slow start and more than a little concern about whether he'd fit the new triangle offense, Bryant is posting career highs for points, rebounds, assists and shooting percentage. Now in his fourth season, he's still only 21. Jackson would love to jump on Bryant's sometimes questionable shot selection. But in his first 21 games back, the Lakers went 20-1 (they've since cooled). You don't hear Shaq mumbling "Baby Jordan," which was his way of telling you that he feared that Bryant would try to go off and win games by himself. 4. Jackson picked the perfect situation In Harris' final full season, the Lakers were swept out of the playoffs in the Western Conference finals by the Jazz. Embarrassment No. 1. Playing for Rambis last season in the playoffs, they were swept out of the conference semis by the Spurs. Embarrassment No. 2. It's not just that they were getting swept out of the playoffs that was so humiliating. It's that they were also going backwards. In the only job he really wanted, Jackson knew he could capitalize on the Lakers' recent failures. The team was ready to listen to a proven winner. "What happened the past two playoffs left a bad taste in all of our mouths," Bryant said. "There's enough motivation in those two things to keep us going all year long. A lot of people have picked us in the past and have been wrong. I don't see it as letting them down. We let ourselves down, because we always had the talent. But something always went wrong." This year, nothing's gone wrong, thanks to the right man at the right place at the right time. Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News is a regular contributor to ESPN.com | ALSO SEE No Bull: Jackson returns to Chicago  | |||||
