Jackson Coolly Has Team Hot Again

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">LOS ANGELES ? He returned to the Lakers wearing a suit and sandals at his re-introductory news conference, so California cool you were waiting for him to don a pair of sunglasses and bring out the suntan lotion next.

Now Phil Jackson has trudged his way through the thick sand of the NBA's regular season, nudging this team along, subtly leading it to 11 more victories than a year ago, slipping into the playoffs with a roster that at times looked as if it could have been recruited from nearby Venice Beach.

If he helped to guide his kids safely past the shallow waters, they are about to look out and see a large, menacing wave heading in their direction.

It will be up to their surfing Zen Master to get them through it.

This is when Jackson will start earning his $10 million. This is when we find out just how good a coach he really is.

"It's unknown," Jackson said, describing the expectations of this seventh-seeded team. "That's kind of fun. The other aspect is to get them to play as a team.

"In playoff basketball, it's not going to be about Kobe getting 40 points a night. It's about taking all aspects and making them work together."

Or, to put it bluntly, it's about taking a flawed Lakers team and finding some way to beat the Phoenix Suns and the association's best point guard in Round 1.

On pure talent, they can't do it. But maybe the man who ranks among the most successful coaches in NBA history has figured out a way to trade his famous aura in for a little magic.

Frank Hamblen, who has coached alongside Jackson for 10 years, thinks his boss could have a major effect in the playoffs, especially with a team full of so many kids who haven't been this far before.

"Just with the experience he's had in every round, even the championship round, he can make a difference," said Hamblen, who presumably wasn't suggesting the Lakers will get that far.

"He can tell them what to expect, take them through it from start to finish. He can explain how the level of play increases, how the officials don't call as many fouls, how you have to play a series against one team and lock in on them."

Psychologically, too, the man with nine championship rings can make a difference.

"I think having a coach like this matters a lot," Luke Walton said. "Not only Phil, but the whole staff. They've all been there before; they all know how to win.

"I think a lot of times, with coaches who haven't been there, they tend to get a little nervous. He won't. He'll be relaxed, and if we get tight out there, he'll know what to do."

To judge what Jackson already has done, you need to look back a few months when this bungling bunch was in complete disarray, when Lamar Odom seemed lost and Kwame Brown appeared lacking the skills even to make it onto a CBA roster.

Now Odom looks like some kind of master mathematician, solving the triangle so well he had three double-doubles and two triple-doubles in the five games heading into Wednesday night's 115-95 victory in the regular-season finale against the Hornets.

Without Jackson a year ago, Odom and Kobe Bryant got along like Tom Cruise and the writers from "South Park." With Phil this season, they have learned to play together, if not in perfect sync, at least well enough to be complementary parts on most nights.

Brown, though, is the real revelation.

Early in the season, he looked like the most overpriced player in the NBA, exhibiting neither the talent nor the energy to be any kind of a factor. The only thing he consistently led the league in was absorbing criticism.

A lot of coaches would have given up on him. Jackson didn't. Maybe it was because he understood it would take time. Or maybe it was just because he had no other choice.

But eventually, he moved the big guy to center, and it's as if one of those TV reality shows had come in and done a complete makeover on No.54. If you haven't observed for a while, you won't recognize him.

He is active and physical and even has rung up four double-digit scoring games in a row heading into the postseason.

This is what a good coach does. He takes what he has and proceeds to make it better. He doesn't whine about what's not on his plate, he simply mixes it together and turns it into something palatable.

"We've improved," Jackson said before Wednesday night's game. "There's a feeling of satisfaction in seeing the team improve in things like turnovers and percentage of shooting.

"There is a sense of fulfillment (for me). This team has really responded. There is good unity. We had some real hard days in the middle of winter, but we survived it."</div>

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