Jackson Pleased With Team So Far

About that 5-5 prediction. . . .

With the Lakers off to a far better start that Coach Phil Jackson foresaw, the question of how they did it, and Jackson’s reaction, comes up more and more.

“Well, we won a couple of games on Shaq [O’Neal’s] ability to carry the team at some point,” Jackson said before Sunday’s game.

“Our ability to play on the road was better than I thought. We were much more poised. Not having to win close games. We haven’t had a lot of close games. . . .

“And I think scheduling. Some of the scheduling’s worked out real good for us.

“Some of the teams have had injured players and haven’t been quite as strong as they will be later in the season. . . .

“I expected to come through November hopefully above .500 but I didn’t expect to have a November run quite like this. December’s going to be a month for us where we have to learn how we play consecutive games on the road and travel East and play during the holiday season, which makes it a little more difficult. . . .

“We have some opponents who’ll be on top of the heap this month in San Antonio and Sacramento, Western Conference teams that will really challenge us.”

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When O’Neal was in Orlando, he befriended Darrell Armstrong, an undrafted free-agent guard coming off years in the CBA, USBL, Spain, Cyprus, et al.

“Shaq really took me under his wing when I got there,” Armstrong said. “He was a lot of fun. I hung out with him. We had a good time.

“It was just amazing to see people pull up to his car when he was on the highway one day when I first got there. It was a red light and people were just pulling up and jumping out of cars. That kinda shocked me right there.

“I was saying, ‘Well, welcome to the league.’ ”