According to the LA Daily News, the Lakers closed out November with the kind of gaudy record everyone expected of them last November, before infighting and injuries turned the season into a circus. But coach Phil Jackson on Friday called this year's team "spiritually sound."  Call it a lesson learned. Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant now share the same vision and the Lakers look like Team Harmony.

"It was the experience they went through last year," Jackson said. "It was a nasty affair and there was some unfaithfulness, and there's recapitulation, and then there's a little call to the altar and a remarriage, and they go together again as a team. They grew together as a basketball club and they did it at the right time."

And right about now, as the Lakers enjoy one of the best starts in franchise history, they are actually able to appreciate what last season's struggles meant to them. And, Bryant now admits, they could have resolved it all a lot earlier with a little communication.

"Things got out of hand because it started snowballing, and all of a sudden it turned into this big thing where everybody was involved," he said. "One thing that we didn't do, we didn't just sit down ourselves and talk about it. In retrospect, that probably would have just solved the whole thing right there."