Bryant Looking for Stop Signs

Kobe Bryant can put his finger on what’s wrong with the Lakers.

“Last year we won on the defensive end,” Bryant said. “We knew there would come a point when we could just stop a team from scoring. This year we haven’t gotten there yet.”

The Lakers are giving up 97.3 points a game, five more than last season.

Coach Phil Jackson, of course, has his own ideas about the Laker malaise.

“The biggest sense with a basketball team is there’s a sense that you can turn it on and turn it off,” Jackson said, “because you get used to playing in critical, crunch situations during the course of the playoffs.

“It’s not as easy as that.

“You have to set the stage all game long. We’ve been guilty of not working as hard. We’ve been complacent about getting it going in the fourth quarter. It’s cost us at points of the season and it’s cost us some close games on the road.”

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Karl Malone and Charles Barkley recently ripped young players of NBA. Jackson is more forgiving.

“Every generation said that,” Jackson said. “Barkley said it when he got older, and Charles was no angel when he was a kid, either. . . .

“The older players are protective of their turf and the younger players come in and try to nudge them aside. In the process, there’s some ruffling of feathers. That’s a natural process and every generation goes through that.

“This group will learn.”

Jackson is pleased with the development of some of the younger players.

“[Allen] Iverson, I think, is developing into a player whose game I appreciate,” he said.