Lakers Slumping At The Wrong Time

Nothing is working for the Lakers these days. Their once dominant defense has gone dormant. The Ramon Sessions effect has yielded a .500 record in his 8 games since becoming a Laker. Mike Brown is trying desperate tactics and the Clippers are suddenly hot again.

What else can go wrong?

This is the time of year when veteran teams like the Lakers are supposed to be gearing up for the playoffs. Instead this team is looking like it’s the beginning of the season all over again.

At least back in December you could play the shortened training camp and adjusting to Brown’s system cards. Not so much anymore.

L.A. has been in the Brown system for 50 games now. If they don’t get it now then they never will. Then again it is tough to define just who “they” are what with Brown changing rotations more often Dwight Howard changes his mind. Tossing Sessions into the mix was an upgrade in the talent department but it also gave Brown license to again juggle his lineup on a nightly basis.

Now that Sessions is starting the Laker bench is back to being invisible. That unit has been the most problematic group by far this season. Steve Blake was finally looking like the player Laker fans expected until his rib injury. Since then it’s been back to the Blake of last season.

The Metta World Peace experiment failed miserably when he was asked to lead the second unit. Putting him in the starting lineup hasn’t been much of an improvement either. Sessions completely overhauled the bench upon his arrival. Once he got the bump the bench went back to being the worst in the league.

Brown’s tactics just haven’t had the affect of…say…those employed by Phil Jackson. It is unfair to compare the two, I fully realize that. But it does illustrate just how gifted Jackson was for all those that assumed all he did was roll out the balls at practice during his Hall of Fame coaching career.

There really is no hope for the Lakers to get any higher than third in the Western Conference standings. Oklahoma City won’t relinquish the top spot and San Antonio could secure their second seed with some upcoming contests against the Lakers.

Just over a week ago the three seed looked sewn. The Clippers were slumping and the Lakers were maintaining. All of a sudden the Lake Show is getting booed at home while Lob City is back in stride. The tide can certainly change in a hurry in the NBA. As bad as the Lakers have been recently they’re more than capable of reversing the trend. Thing is that needed to happen yesterday. If their slide continues they could find themselves slipping down the standings and possibly having to go on the road to begin the playoffs. I think we all know how that will go given this team’s performance away from Staples.