Jackson Likes the Pace of This Winning Streak

The last time Phil Jackson coached a team that won as many as 17 games in a row, his 1995-96 Chicago Bulls were on their way to winning 72 regular-season games and the NBA championship in six games over the Seattle SuperSonics.

Jackson said that the Lakers’ current 17-game winning streak does remind him of the 18-game Bull streak from Dec. 29, 1995-Feb. 2, 1996, but the Lakers probably control the tempo better.

“Yeah, it was like this,” Jackson said. “We were playing with a little bit higher intensity, perhaps.

“This is a team that can grind things out very economically, actually, if they want to. A lot of times, it’s important for them to understand how powerful they are and how easily they can grind a game out and not get caught up with the flair or the outside game or just maybe to make a quick strike.

“High-scoring games have been limited because we want this team to stay in control of the pace of the game. So when a game opens up [as the Golden State Warriors did on Thursday], we have a tendency to run a little be erratically. . . .

“We had to kind of keep that concept of running with control and yet understanding that our game is really the power game and the control game.”

As the Lakers have continued to rise (they’ve also won nine consecutive road games, the third-longest road winning streak in franchise history and longest since 1972-73), their rivals, the Portland Trail Blazers, have lost four of five, starting with the two teams’ meeting Feb. 29.

Jackson suggests that the strain of watching the Lakers win game after game has gotten to Portland.

“Yeah, it’s an awesome thing for them,” Jackson said. “I know it’s affecting their morale a little bit.”

Said Kobe Bryant of Portland’s plight: “It’s definitely nice because it gives us an extra cushion. But as far as thinking about where their mentality is, and where their head is, I don’t really care.”

So what will it take for Bryant to be impressed with what the Lakers are accomplishing?

“At the end of the season,” Bryant said, “when we’re popping champagne.”

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Other than comparing it to bringing the NBA to “the same level as wrestling,” Jackson said he didn’t want to comment on the league’s mandate that coaches wear microphones during games if NBC or TNT asks them to--or risk $100,000 fines.

“I don’t face the burden of wearing a microphone or not wearing a microphone this weekend [because the Lakers are not on national TV], obviously, and some other people are going to be put in that pressure situation,” Jackson said. “I’d just as soon not really say that much.”

But he conceded that the fine threat does catch his attention.

“That’s a lot of money,” he said. “It makes someone take a deep breath and go back on their heels a little bit when such an edict comes down like that.”