Lakers Coach Phil Jackson asks fans to be patient with team

Five words that fell from Phil Jackson’s lips were telling in that it sounded as if the Lakers coach was pleading.

“Just be patient with us,” Jackson said.

Were those words directed at the media or at the impatient Lakers Nation?

Jackson delivered those words after a thorough beat-down by the Miami Heat on Christmas.

His team has lost consecutive games, both by double-digits, both in a humbling fashion. They were games the Lakers were expected to win.

“Just be patient with us,” Jackson said. “We’ll get it back in order. We’ll be fine. We’ll measure this season and come out where we want to be, I think, at the end.”

The Lakers are 21-9, tied with the Utah Jazz for the third-best record in the Western Conference.

“At this point in the season, with the record that we have, we have to live with what we have,” Jackson said. “We have a record that’s adequate for this point in the year. We’re not pleased, obviously, to have nine losses. … But we are what we are right now.”

Truer words were never spoken.

“Obviously, it wasn’t something I was expecting, but we’ve got to figure things out,” Pau Gasol said. “We’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror and understand what’s going on and how can we fix it. It’s not a coincidence that we’ve lost back-to-back games by 20 points.”

Road test ahead

The Lakers don’t have time to wallow in self-pity, or even much time to reflect on the losses to Miami and the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Lakers have to move forward because their next game presents an even greater challenge than they just faced.

They travel to San Antonio to play the Spurs on Tuesday, and then meet the Hornets in New Orleans on Wednesday.

All the Spurs have done is produced the best record in the NBA.

“That’s the good and bad part about this business, is you don’t really have time or the opportunity to feel sorry for yourself or lick your wounds,” Derek Fisher said after the Lakers’ loss to Miami. “You have to get prepared to play another really good team maybe the next day or 48 hours later.

“And so, that’s the position we’re in now going into Tuesday night’s game against San Antonio. That’s our next opponent. They’re obviously playing great basketball and have the best record in the league, I think, at this point. On their home court, they are hard to beat and we’ll have our work cut out for us.”

The Lakers didn’t practice Sunday but will be back to work Monday.

“It would be nice to finish the year out playing well,” Jackson said. “San Antonio is playing extremely well right now in the season. That’s a game we’ve been pointing at as a coaching staff for some time now, and then New Orleans on a back to back is going to be tough.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

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