Advertisement

Still Not on Easy Street

Times Staff Writer

After two months of abysmal play, the Lakers have won six of eight games, and yet there is no rush to assume they have found their game.

The schedule has turned kind, offering Toronto, Denver, Cleveland and, on Sunday, Miami, before a two-game trip next week to New Orleans and Houston.

“I can only go by how it feels,” Rick Fox said. “And it feels the way it’s supposed to.”

If nothing else, the Lakers’ last five wins have come reasonably easily, by an average of 16.8 points.

Advertisement

“Beating them the way we’re beating them helps,” Fox said.

Still, these are the Lakers, and there’s usually something.

“There’s always going to be rough spots,” Kobe Bryant said. “We just want to get out of this hole, right the ship. We’re playing more consistently, and we’re playing better consistently.”

*

Samaki Walker had 10 points and five rebounds in 13 first-half minutes, a sign his hyperextended left knee would not be the latest in a line of nagging injuries.

“I feel good, feel healthy,” Walker said. “The knee thing is nothing that’s hampering.”

Walker finished with 12 points and six rebounds in 18 minutes.

*

Of his 12 field-goal attempts Friday, Bryant shot two threes and missed both.... Bryant led the Lakers in assists for the 24th time in 36 games.

Advertisement
Advertisement