Jackson Says There’s Room to Improve

The best record in the league is nice, but there are some big things the Lakers need to improve upon, Coach Phil Jackson said before the game Monday.

“Oh, we’re a long ways from playing really exceptional basketball yet,” Jackson said. “We don’t have a rhythm or flow to our offense that I’d like to see us have.

“We’re still learning to recognize what’s needed in a ballgame through the leadership of our guards.

“Defensively, there’s a lot of room for improvement always, as far as just our position and our team defense. . . . There’s December, which is nice to be playing well. Then there’s the aspect of how you’re going to have to play when it comes April, May and June to win.”

Jackson specifically pointed to the opening up of the triangle offense to allow for some freelancing--especially by Kobe Bryant--but without veering from the main principles.

“First of all we had to restrict them, pen them into it . . . and kind of hedge their game,” Jackson said. “We hedged most of them until Kobe came back 1/8from his broken hand Dec. 1 3/8 and he kind of broke through the fences a little bit.

“And now we’re kind of getting it back again, figuring out how to do this within the context of the offense that incorporates his game into ours.”

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Shaquille O’Neal has made about 46% of his free throws since his 33.3% low point in mid-November, to raise his season percentage above 40%.

“We’ve just started reemphasizing a little bit about that in the last couple games--50% is not good enough,” Jackson said. “We want him to be at 65 and upward. . . . We talked to him again today about it--not being prepared to shoot at the beginning of the game and then getting going sometime in the second half and making consecutive free throws and those types of things. . . .

“But we’re happy it hasn’t been an eyesore or a really painful thing for us.”