DB.com We work under the assumption that you?ve got at least one?fourth of your March Madness bracket filled out, huh?
     LaFrentz ?No doubt. We got a No. 1 seed again -- we seem to get those No. 1 and No. 2 seeds every year, and still end up falling short. Not this year, though!??
     DB.com Are you going to get a chance to watch much college basketball in the next week?
     LaFrentz ?I think I?ll be able to catch a few games on Thursday and Friday. Lemme see. ? we play Thursday and Saturday, so we?ll have to see how much we?ll be able to see. ? The guys are into it.??
     DB.comDo you allow yourself to look ahead at the schedule at all?
     LaFrentz ?Right now, you take it one day at a time. For me, that means game-to-game, practice-to-practice, as I am still trying to figure things out: How to do things, what is expected of me. We have, as a team, looked at the schedule enough to know that it doesn?t get any easier. We?ve got the Lakers a couple of times. We know that, and we know what a test that will be of what sort of a team we really are.??
     DB.com You have had some success, relatively speaking, with Shaq, though. How do you grade yourself as a man-on defender?
     LaFrentz ?It all depends on the matchups. So far in my career, I?ve mostly played center. When you do that and go against the likes of Shaq or Duncan, well, nobody is going to fare very well down in the low post against them. But against the rest of the centers, I?ve definitely been able to hold my own. Against Shaq, nobody has success in stopping him. But more often than not, I make him come away from the basket, which plays into my strengths. I hit the outside jumpers and maybe I beat him that way.??
     DB.com Part of the preparation for this stretch included a players-only practice. How did that come about?
     LaFrentz ?I think it came down from the coaches. They wanted the players to have a chance to get together, and address certain issues ourselves, as a team. Avery Johnson ran it. He is a voice of authority. He?s got that high-pitched voice, but when he talks, everybody definitely listens.??
     DB.com There has been a lot of talk of Nick Van Exel needing to just relax and play, but coaches and Mavs players are saying the same thing about you. How difficult has it been?
     LaFrentz ?To a certain extent, people are right when they say, ?Just relax and play.? But the situation here is that a new player coming in had to understand that this team was already doing a great job and having a great season before we got here. You don?t want to disrupt the flow of what was already happening. You want to fit into the flow. Fitting in, to me, comes first, and playing my kind of basketball needs to come second. You don?t need to fix what wasn?t broke.??