Lakers Continue to Pretend They Don’t Care About Home-Court Advantage

This kind of thinking will work out just fine for them, I’m certain: “Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant aren’t sweating it. Jackson shrugged often and Bryant smiled easily after the Lakers on Sunday went sleepwalking through their lowest-scoring game in two years, dating to March 11, 2007…The way he breezily addressed the home-court topic, Bryant appeared to care more about getting to take his daughters to Disneyland or feeding his cupcake cravings at Sprinkles in Newport Beach than facing the Cavaliers at Staples Center. Bryant wound up categorically dismissing the need for home-court advantage, saying: ‘The better team is going to advance, no matter what. It’s just what it is.’ So there you have the Lakers’ state of mind, which is in part why they let this game in Atlanta slip away. Neither the Hall of Fame coach nor the reigning MVP is prioritizing this issue of home-court advantage over Cleveland, so the trickle-down effect has left all the Lakers quite blasé about it.”