Phil Jackson: Lakers Started All-Star Break Too Early

Well, this is certainly one way to explain away last night’s debacle in Cleveland. ESPN reports: “Forget worst loss of the season. [Last night]’s result lands squarely in the conversation for worst loss of the past decade. Coincidentally, it came on a day when Jerry Buss, showing in a rare public appearance why he’s the most successful owner in professional sports, stuck up for his team and its potential despite the leg-weariness accompanying three straight trips to the NBA Finals. ‘I think right about now everybody senses that we have to get busy,’ he said. ‘This is going to be our time. The pride begins to set in, not the fatigue. The fatigue begins to float away, and now they say, ‘Wait a minute. This is our championship; you’re going to have to take it away from us before you can call yourselves champions.” Perhaps Buss should have been more specific, since pride apparently doesn’t kick in until after the All-Star break, a five-day intermission the Lakers seemingly thought too short. ‘I think they took the break before the game started,’ Jackson told reporters afterward.”