The way the lakers are playing in the last 5 games is disgraceful with the lack of effort being shown on the court. It seems as though they have forgotten to play defense and believe that TO’s count for something positive. In the past 5 losses, the Lakers have accumulated an astronomical 80+ turnovers, thats more than 16 a game. 16+ turnovers a game! During the Lakers 9 game win streak they only had 85 turnovers, about 9.5 a game.

They had acquired the lead with a few minutes left in the game and just when you thought the old lakers might resurface, shit hit the fan and they turned the ball over 5 times. The Thunder closed the game on a 17-2 run resulting in the 120-106 loss.

Kobe had 31 with 22 at the half and it was his aggressiveness offensively that helped them cut the lead from twelve to two in the first half. The defense was non existent against the Thunder as they shot 62% in the first half and 57% for the game. I don’t know if the Lakers feel like they can cruise to and through the playoffs, but you’re not going to win any games letting your opponent shoot 57%.

Ron Artest is supposed to be the defensive stopper, yet he let Durantula drop 31 points on only 15 field goal attempts. Westbrook had 18 at the half and finished with 26 along with 6 rebounds, two more than Pau Gasoft. When Gasol is only grabbing 4 rebounds in a night, I don’t care how many points he has(26). He’s obviously not doing his job and crashing the boards with aggressiveness and that lack of effort shows in the final score, inexcusable.

It’s scary knowing that none of our point guards are capable of containing Westbrook . His lethal combination of speed, quickness, and vertical, lets him get to the hole at will and pull up for 15 footers when he’s bored of lay-ups. Not only that, but if he’s knocking down his three-pointers and getting 4 point plays,then forget about it, just quit. The only chance the Lakers have is to put Shannon Brown on Westbrook if they meet in the playoffs, which will thin out the bench but is a necessary adjustment the way I see it. He may not have all the quickness Westbrook has but he has enough of it, and his size and strength would hopefully disrupt the UCLA alumni.

The Laker’s bread and butter is their defense and when the laker’s bigs aren’t rotating properly, then the whole defense collapses. On Durant’s drive and dunk in the first half, Pau Gasol just watches him blow by Bynum, our second best player at the moment, doesn’t get there in time, barely jumps and put’s his hand up as if he might try and block it, but he was just letting everyone know, “I surrender”.

Speaking of Andrew Bynum, he grabbed 13 boards yesterday, more than the total between Gasol and Odom, and more than the Thunder frontcourt. He played 39 minutes, more than any other player in the game. This is a good sign that he’s ready to log in some major minutes in the playoffs. Bynum will be key and I believe that his play and effort will be the anchor for the rest of the team’s success. Bynum will break out and have a monster post-season solidifying himself as a true elite center in the league. I will go out on a limb and say that he will average 18.5 points, 14.5 rebounds, with 2.7 blocks in 37 min of action.

The Lakers are now tied with the Mavs for the second seed with the Thunder now only one game back. These last two games are now monumental if the Lakers want to secure home court through the second round. They take on the Spurs Tuesday and then head back to beautiful California vs The Kings in their last game in Sacramento to close out the season since the Kings are moving to the L.A. area next season. The Thunder only have to face the Kings and Bucks while the Mavs will take on Houston and New Orleans. If the Lakers want to end up as the fourth seed, then by all means screw around and rest the starters the whole way, but the defending champs as a four seed? Not a good look.

Playing like this, the Lakers can kiss their three-peat hopes goodbye. Not even Donovan McNabb’s mom and her soup or any of Phil Jackson’s suggested readings could help the Lakers recover from this sickness. They’re gonna really have to work for it this year, but if they do it, this will be the sweetest championship yet.