Lakers supremely confident

They are confident because they play their best basketball in the spring.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Lakers have an air of supreme confidence heading into the NBA Finals, and it's the product of many factors that boil down to one time-tested truth.
Though every team hopes and plans to play its best basketball in the spring, the Lakers really know how to do it.
They were a mess of conflicting skills and rampaging egos for most of their tumultuous season, but they've won 14 of their last 19 games. That momentum, even more than their eclectically talented roster, makes them the favorite over the Detroit Pistons in tonight's Game 1.
"We're getting close to playing our best basketball," Karl Malone said. "We're not there yet, but we've been creeping up on it for a while now. Except for a couple of games in the second round [against San Antonio], we've been improving and finding our focus better."
Hallmark of team
Late-season surges are a hallmark of coach Phil Jackson's teams, but the Lakers' veterans took it to an extreme this season.
Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant both recently admitted to being bored during long stretches of the regular season, while new arrivals Malone and Gary Payton still aren't really comfortable in Jackson's system.
But when the Lakers can smell a title, they perk up -- and that's exactly what seems to be happening in these playoffs.
"So far in the playoffs, they've been able to do what they want, whenever they want it, whenever they need it," Detroit backup center Elden Campbell said.
The Lakers made a wealth of adjustments on both ends of the court after losing Game 2 of their second-round series at San Antonio.
Four straight wins
Los Angeles finished off the series with four straight victories -- with a gigantic boost from Derek Fisher's improbable buzzer-beater in Game 5 -- and followed with a six-game victory over Minnesota in the conference finals.
"No way did we think we were going to beat [the Spurs] four times in a row," Fisher said. "The success we've had in this postseason is by playing one game at a time. There hasn't been an air of desperation, a 9-1-1, 'We have to win this game.' "
No Eastern team without Michael Jordan on its roster has won the finals since Detroit captured its second title in 1990. Though the Lakers are clear favorites for their momentum and talent, the Pistons' defense and Richard Hamilton's scoring should give them a better chance than other recent East finalists.
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