A slump or something serious?

ATLANTA — Lakers coach Phil Jackson left it up to me to answer my own question about whether the team is just in a little pre-playoffs lull or whether their losses to Oklahoma City on Saturday and New Orleans on Monday were something more troubling. Jackson said: “You can speculate about that if you want to. I couldn’t guess about that. What have we won, eight out of 10 games? Who’s to whine? What are we gong to whine about?”

True, true, but if they had played up to their usual standards they might be on a 10-game winning streak going into Wednesday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks.