Lakers finally learn life on road

Seven weeks into the National Basketball Association season, the Los Angeles Lakers are finally rediscovering the trials and tribulations of life on the road.

The Lakers played 17 of their first 21 games at home, but they now are in a stretch in which they will play 18 of 27 games on the road. The Lakers opened their first extended trip Dec. 12 in Utah, traveled on to Chicago, Milwaukee and New Jersey, and concluded it Sunday night in Detroit with a 93-81 victory.

In March, the Lakers will play 11 of 15 games on the road.

And while there are quirks to any team’s schedule, the Lakers’ is out of whack even by NBA standards.

“I think it’s wonderful,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said during the team’s brief stop in Milwaukee last week. “You just have to go through it. It’s going to be a tough January and February, but you just go through whatever it’s all about.”

The Lakers tweaked their itinerary last week so they would spend a minimum amount of time in Milwaukee.

They stayed overnight after Tuesday’s game in Chicago and then bused directly to their early afternoon shoot-around Wednesday. They then checked into the Pfister hotel, where a team spokesman said they spent a grand total of 3 hours and 15 minutes before returning to the Bradley Center for the game.

After playing the Bucks, they immediately flew to New York, where they spent three nights leading up to Saturday’s game against the Nets.

While it would appear that the Lakers prefer to spend their time in Chicago and New York rather than Milwaukee – imagine that – Jackson said the decision to stay in Chicago and then bus to Milwaukee on game day saved them some time.

“In transportation to the plane, unloading and packing (luggage) and getting the flight, and then unloading and getting it back on the bus,” said Jackson.

The Lakers took advantage of their early-season home cooking to fatten up their record, but now they will be challenged by the schedule. Last weekend, when they played Minnesota and Utah on consecutive nights, it opened a stretch in which they will play 22 of 32 games as part of back-to-back sets with a majority of those games on the road.

Shock and awe

Bombs away.

That was pretty much the New York Knicks’ attitude as they set a franchise record by hoisting up 47 three-point shots in a loss to Chicago.

New York fell two attempts short of the league record by Dallas in 1996. The Knicks, who took 39 shots from inside the arc, set a league record for a first half by taking 29 threes. They made seven of their first 12 three-pointers in building a 33-16 first-quarter lead but made only 9 of 35 the rest of the way.

“They were hitting so many at first, I think they got a little happy,” said Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, whose team missed 15 straight threes during one stretch.

Said Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich : “We did notice they were taking a lot of them.”

A chip advantage

Atlanta coach Mike Woodson, who has developed the Hawks into one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, says he has “no choice” but to be comfortable with his contract status.

Woodson is in the second year of a two-year deal and, despite the Hawks advancing to the second round of the playoffs last season and being off to one of their best starts in franchise history this season, contract talks appear to be on hold until the end of the season.

Woodson, who has said that if he does his job everything else will fall in place, was asked by Atlanta reporters if that meant he was basically betting on himself.

“I’ve always put the chips on me,” said Woodson.

Pearls of wisdom

Utah is 3-1 while playing on national television this season, a fact Jazz coach Jerry Sloan alluded to before last week’s game against lowly Minnesota.

“You find out who you are in games like this,” said Sloan. “(It seems) we just want to play on television and probably want to play well against the (top) teams. If you’re going to be good, you play against everybody.”

The Jazz lost to Minnesota.