Kamenetzky Brothers's post on LA Lakers | Latest updates on Sulia

Any temptation to look at Tuesday's game in Oklahoma City as a potential 1st round preview? Not for Steve Nash:

"I guess (you could)," he said Monday in El Segundo before the Lakers left for OKC. "It's not something I really spend a lot of time thinking about, because I just want to get in. At this point, with all the disappointment, with all the change, all the ups and downs, injuries, and lack of progress for a long stretch of the season, I just want to get in. Just try to find a way to get in, and then we'll worry about who we play." Obviously he's right. Anything else represents a massive cart/horse issue. Still, Nash, who has been blunt about the team's performance throughout the season and at times questioned whether they could rally their way into the playoffs, seems a lot more optimistic about the Lakers now than he did a few weeks back. "I think we've gotten a little bit better. The amount of time, the amount of games have started to afford us a little more comfort on the court. (We're) a little more confident. I think we're more efficient. And we're growing. It's been slow, and we're still I think improving at a slow rate, but we're winning at a good clip. So hopefully we can keep improving, keep winning at this rate, and really build ourselves into a good team. And obviously it would be fantastic if we could get a couple guys back," he said. How much impact getting back to .500 has psychologically it's hard to say -- particularly since they might not be there long -- but without question the Lakers are feeling better about themselves even if their actual level of play hasn't exactly skyrocketed. Incremental improvement is better than no improvement at all, though the pace certainly needs to ramp up with a road-heavy March in front of them. Plenty of test games coming up. --BK