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Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni on saying team would score 110 points a game last season: 'I was on drugs back then'

Mike D'Antoni doesn't expect the Lakers to average 115 points a game this season. (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

Mike D'Antoni doesn't expect the Lakers to average 115 points a game this season. (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

When the Los Angeles Lakers hired Mike D'Antoni as their coach, they were fully aware that he planned to implement his up-tempo, seven-seconds-or-less style with the aging roster.

When he took the job, D'Antoni even went so far as saying the team would average between 110 and 115 points per game.

The Lakers ended up averaging 102 points and almost 97 possessions per game last season. There may have been a reason why D'Antoni said those things.

"Yeah, well, I was on drugs back then," D'Antoni told the Los Angeles Times. "My knee was hurting. Vicodin was killing me."

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D'Antoni had recently had knee surgery before the season.

What can Lakers fans expect this year as they await Kobe Bryant's return to the lineup?

"It won't be crazy," he said, "but we want to push it and get a nice pace. We want to get some easy buckets before the defense sets up, so we'll be up in the top five probably in pace, but it won't be breakneck speed."