The General clears the air

Two questions about the Lakers game from the assembled media today caught Avery Johnson’s attention … in the wrong way. I’m paraphrasing the questions and, no, they didn’t come from me.

How can the team start out that slow? “It happens in the NBA. Just watch 82 games. All right. Whether it’s late in the season, early in the season, teams get off to slow starts. When you’ve been doing it for 20 years like I have, it happens. Now if it consistently happens, then that’s a different story.”

The Lakers said it was a big game and you said it was like Minnesota. Is there something to that? “You’ve taken that totally out of context.”

Johnson continued: “We thought it was a big game. We think every game is a big game. I think you’ve heard me say that. Every game is a big game. What we’re saying is, whether we play Minnesota or the Lakers or whomever we’re playing, at this stage of the season they all are big.”