Postgame thoughts

The postgame mood was remarkably subdued after the Lakers beat the Dallas Mavericks, 106-99, for their sixth consecutive win to start the season. it was tough to know whether they won or not, but then Lamar Odom starting signing in the shower and then you knew.

Anyway, here are a few postgame comments ...

Phil Jackson on the stretch run: "I wasn't happy with our execution down the stretch. We were able to survive, with a seven-point lead they cut it down to two (99-97). Our execution got a little bit sloppy, Kobe (Bryant) had to force some shots, we didn't take care of the ball right away in some of those situations. But our defense stood (up) pretty good."

Derek Fisher on the Lakers' defensive play: "We gave up 35 points in the first quarter, which is an abomination as far as we're concerned this year. It's just not something that we're OK with, and I think we made some better adjustments, only giving up 25 points in the second quarter."

Jackson on Pau Gasol's defense against Dirk Nowitzki, who had 14 points early in the third quarter and was blanked for the final 22 minutes, 14 seconds: "You know Pau is a great player, both at center and power forward, and we knew this was a good matchup for us tonight. Dirk is a great shooter and we were able to contain him at least somewhat, and Pau had a big hand in doing that."

So that's 6-for-6 to start the season. Now it's off to play the Hornets on Wednesday in what figures to be the Battle of New Orleans.