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Have the Lakers turned it on? What I'm seeing lately after the All-Star Break is a more focused attack on defense. It seems like they finally found out that the pre-season was over and that it's time to play. Phil Jackson probably told the players that it was okay to play defense. Artest's offense also has come out of nowhere, and it's a great sign to see, knowing that the playoffs are roughly 20 games away.

I know it's only 4 games since the break, but it's hard not to be much more optimistic than before the break. I was never truly concerned to the point where I would question if they still had it in them, but seeing how they're playing now is so refreshing as fans. They needed to wake up, and now's the perfect time to. March is put up or shut up month, and they need to take advantage of it.

I'll reserve my judgement until they beat Dall or SA....until then all 4 of the teams they beat were of no threat to them in the playoffs, although I did see alot of grit/determination in both Por/OKC gm that I didn't see before the AS break....normally when we see this team go down DD, they tend to let the game get away from them and brake from offense and get worse defensively....but in those two games, they kept on chipping away and tightening the D which was impressive.

LApwnd wrote:I'll reserve my judgement until they beat Dall or SA....until then all 4 of the teams they beat were of no threat to them in the playoffs

Of course. I guess what I'm really trying to get at is that it's quite exciting to finally seeing them play the way we all know they could, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

LA Forever wrote:

LApwnd wrote:I'll reserve my judgement until they beat Dall or SA....until then all 4 of the teams they beat were of no threat to them in the playoffs

Of course. I guess what I'm really trying to get at is that it's quite exciting to finally seeing them play the way we all know they could, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

yes I'm much more opptomistic seeing how they closed out OKC/Por thats for sure.

id like to see them face san antonio, dallas, miami, ny, boston and orlando to see where they really stand.

iki4life wrote:id like to see them face san antonio, dallas, miami, ny, boston and orlando to see where they really stand.

NY?

Yeah, I think they turned it on. They are definitely trying with playoff effort now. The San Antonio through Orlando stretch will let us know if they are good enough to win the championship with their playoff effort turned on.

It's on like donkey kong.

It's on now, but it was also on when we started our road trip 4-0. Once we hit a 8 or 9 game win streak then I'll get my confidence in this team fully back to what it was at the beginning of the season.

I think the "switch" flip during that road trip was a fluke. That is why I am having trouble saying that they have flipped the "switch" right now. The Lakers have a brutal stretch of games coming up in the next few days. If they can perform well during this stretch of games then I will feel comfortable saying that they have flipped the switch.

March 4 - Bobcats
March 6 - @ Spurs
March 8 - @ Hawks
March 10 - @ Heat
March 12 - @ Mavs
March 14 - Magic

All of these games are important to win but I view the Spurs and Mavs as must win games.

dammit why did tony parker have to be injured b4 we face them again....fck now i cant use that game as measuring stick mainly because tp is crucial to spurs' success

trufan24 wrote:dammit why did tony parker have to be injured b4 we face them again....fck now i cant use that game as measuring stick mainly because tp is crucial to spurs' success

All you need to know is that when it comes down to a 7 game series, they cant see us. Although the Heat aren't any threat to us coming out of the West, I'm more interested to the March 10th game. I want to see how this team responds by getting blown out on Christmas day on their own floor. All of the respectable teams have gotten a win over the trio, lets see what we can do. Thats the measuring stick.

I wish you hadn't posted this till after we come away with a win against SAS & DAL. It is good to see artest contributing to the games now so much that it stands out. Then again we have won 4 then then went on a losing streak before I'm not sold yet...

I'm beginning to accept that we won't catch the spurs so I think the dallas game is much more crucial than the spurs game

I think that sometime after the loss to Cleveland, Phil gathered everyone in his house at exactly 11:59 pm and the entire team turned on the switch. That might explain Kobe's all-star performance that Sunday night. So yeah, this switch is officially ON now.

We won 4 straight (including a win over Boston) where people were saying we finally turned it on, before losing 3 straight during which everyone panicked.

I hope this streak gets extended to 11, just to show we're super beast

As of right now it could be just another fluke but from seeing them grind out the games in okc/por shows that they are more into games. Had this been the lakers before the break one we were down in the 4th quarter we would have just rolled over and gotten blown out. Just like some of the posters above I'll hold my opinion till we're finished that tough stretch in March

I hope some of you guys are right!

Like Skyhook said let's wait until that 1st week of March is over.

So far, so good. 7-0 since the break.