It’s been hovering over the Lakers since last year’s loss to the Boston Celtics in the finals.

Are the Lakers tough enough? I think so, allow me to explain…

Here is an e-mail I recently got from reader Greg:

I saw how Boston and Detroit beat us, we need a foward with toughness and a bit of scoring to replace Radmanovic  someone like Haslem from Miami, or we will repeat last year, almost isnt doing it and Kobe has only a few great years left.

I took the time to e-mail Greg back with the following comment:

I’ve got to disagree with you. I think Ariza has shown he can fill the “toughness” void. I am excited to see how we match up again Boston this year, but I can explain why the Detroit loss looked so bad.

The Lakers have a really strong interior defense and offense. The team has very good outside shooters, but this year’s success will be based on their ability to defend and dominate the painted area. Detroit plays perimeter basketball. Rasheed Wallace forces the defense to stretch to the outside, leave the paint more open, and creates a matchup problem for the Lakers. I think the Lakers solution next time around will potentially be to have Gasol and Bynum sub in for each other and not let them play together. If we put Lamar Odom on Wallace instead, we may find more success.

To expand a little bit on what I wrote to Greg, I think it’s important that we realize what we are composed of. We’ve got players that are capable of playing every position. The real game is in matchups.

Lets not forget, our coach is the legendary Zen Master Phil Jackson and he is known for his ability to play mind games. Included in mind games is the ability to mess with the roster and substitute players for each other however often it is necessary. It is early in the season and it will be interesting to see how the Lakers manage to match up with the Celtics and Pistons later on. Other teams to keep an eye out for are the New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Stay tuned for whats to come with this team in the upcoming weeks. I expect to see the big guys really dominate the paint the way they did last night against the Bulls. After all, seeing Pau Gasol finish with 34 points is always a good sign!