Farmar Learning to Adjust

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">ATLANTA - A half-hour after the team bus had left the morning shootaround, Lakers guard Jordan Farmar was still on the court at Philips Arena, taking jumpers in front of 19,000empty seats by himself.

Farmar shot at both ends of the court, sometimes with only one hand to get his form and follow-through correct. By his own admission, Farmar just wanted to see the ball go in the basket after three consecutive scoreless games.

After scoring a career-high 17points at Dallas on Jan. 18, Farmar had scored just 15 total points and made 5 of 24 shots in the eight games since. And Lakers coach Phil Jackson said the games are starting to add up for Farmar in his first pro season.

"He's at the proverbial wall as far as rookies go," Jackson said. "I know kids don't want to admit it or face up to it ... but when you haven't been used to playing the amount of games that sometimes they run into each other.

"It becomes tedious or monotonous and you lose the ability to focus on the immediate thing at hand."

Farmar bounced back Monday against Atlanta, hitting two 3-pointers and playing 18 minutes. Farmar came through with a big 3-pointer to put the Lakers up by 11 immediately after Smush Parker was alled for a technical late in the second quarter.

Farmar talked about how difficult it is to maximize a 16-minute window of opportunity in the NBA when he was used to playing nearly the entire game in at UCLA and Taft High of Woodland Hills.

"That's probably the biggest adjustment," Farmar said. "It's tough getting used to. Knowing in college and your whole career previously, you're in the whole game and you had plenty of time to feel the game out and pick your points. Now it's just like you're going to be in there for sometimes two minutes, sometimes four. If you get off to a good start, you might get a couple extra (minutes)." </div>

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