LAKER NOTES
The Lakers were the No. 6 defensive team this season, giving up an average of 92 points a game. In the first three rounds of the playoffs, they gave up 96 to the Kings, 91 to the Suns and 95 to the Trail Blazers, but the Pacers are currently knocking down 102 a game on them.
In the three at Conseco, Indiana averaged 105--without counting the 14 points the Pacers scored in the overtime in Game 5.
“We realize we haven’t faced a team like this all year long,” Bryant said. “In the Western Conference, everything kind of starts in the paint. These guys attack on the perimeter. They spread you out, take jump shots, penetrate the ball down your throat. So we kind of have to change our schemes, defensively.”
Bryant, on Jalen Rose’s suggestion Glen Rice isn’t taking his shots: “All Jalen’s trying to do is get in his head.
“We’re not going to let that happen.”
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