Tonight, the Lakers face off against the suddenly not so struggling Knicks. These two teams met last month right before Christmas in New York and the Lakers came out with a win after surrendering a twenty point lead in the second half. This time, the Lakers are no longer sitting pretty atop the Western conference and truly can’t afford any more losses to mediocre teams.

The loss to the Cavs on Sunday gave the Lakers their 4th loss in 5 games and puts them only 2 games ahead of the #10 team in the conference, meaning that the playoff hunt is deeper and more difficult than anyone anticipated. The Lakers have done a great job throughout the season of making sure to close out the teams that need to be beaten and not give them a chance. Thats what good teams do, they beat the teams they are suppose to beat, and compete well with the contenders.

Throughout all the injuries the Lakers have suffered thus far into the season you ahve to believe that the injury bug has finally left Staples Center. Perhaps we are better off getting all these injuries out of the way now and not having to worry about this later in the season. I mean seriously, how much bad luck can we possibly have with injuries two seasons in a row.

The Knicks have won 5 of their last 8 games and come into LA hoping to make the game closer than what it was when they met at Madison Square Garden. Kobe and crew have their own agenda in planning a complete blowout of the Knicks to prove that the Lakers are still a team prepared to compete. I expect a big game from Fisher and Farmar as well as some scoring out of Kwame and Lamar. This could also potentially become a break out game for Radmanovic if the team can get a big enough lead by half time.

UPDATE: LAKERS WIN WITH A 4TH QUARTER COMEBACK!!!