I know a lot of you like to read descriptions of what happens at Lakers practices, especially training-camp ones, but there hasn’t been a lot to see and write because the Lakers did all their contact scrimmaging in their night practices the first week of camp. (We in the media world attend the morning practices.) The Lakers are done with two-a-day work now, so it’s back to normal, though.
Hopefully my latest column off the team’s practice at Staples Center will satisfy some cravings for peeks inside practice. Gotta say that Pau Gasol’s performance in the post-practice 3-point shooting contests was most impressive, and Gasol half-jokingly said: “Talk to Phil” about his success translating to game opportunities from deep.
The bottom line of the column is that no one should be too worried about the Lakers not looking very sharp so far. They certainly aren’t concerned. Consider that Derek Fisher flat-out stated his expectation for the season to end with a championship.
And speaking of projections, I had dinner last night with some Lakers staffers and other reporters, and we all offered our predictions on how many regular-season games the Lakers would win. I stuck to my pre-training-camp word that the Lakers would win 66, which was more than any of the other seven people at the table predicted (although one person did go with 65).
How prescient am I? Well, I did peg the Dodgers-Phillies series right on a week ago as ending for Philly in five.
