The Los Angeles Lakers have been hit by numerous injuries including to its leader Kobe Bryant who will be out for the next six weeks, but coach Mike D'Antoni believes his team can still make the playoffs despite its struggles.
"Yeah, we can do that," D'Antoni told ESPN.com regarding their chance to make the playoffs before their win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night.
With an even 13-13 record that is good for 10th place in the highly competitive West, the Lakers have their hands full in keeping up with other teams. But D'Antoni firmly believes in his players.
"I don't want to be too simple, but you got to win games," D'Antoni said. "We just got to play. We got to get our point guards back, get Kobe back in a month or whatever and then go from there. Hopefully we'll get some luck. We're on the other side of the coin right now. We got to be a little lucky and we got to start treading a little bit above .500 for a while, and if we can do that, then we may get some cavalry later on."
Asked how many games the Lakers need to win in order to qualify for the postseason, D'Antoni said they need about 45-46 games.
Aside from Bryant, other Lakers who have been dealing with injuries are guards Steve Nash, Steve Blake and Jordan Farmar.
D'Antoni also notes that the West has been very competitive this year.
"It's difficult every year," D'Antoni said of the Western Conference. "The last two, three years, you win two more [games], you lose two more, you're either 12th place or fifth place. That's just the way the West is. It's been that way for a number of years. There's some really good teams, and you have to win the games that you're favored, for sure, and you can't kick any away."
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