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It’s almost time for the Lakers to ‘pay the piper’

The Lakers actually should be up 4 games on the Suns and have the best record on the NBA at this point of the season. Why? Because they’ve played more home games than anyone else (17 to be exact), and will pay for it in the second half of the season. In retrospect it’s probably the best thing that could have happened as it gave the Lakers just enough needed advantage when Pau was out of the lineup, and keep everybody close to simplify the negotiation process and now both Pau and Kobe are in agreement at least in principal. The flip side to this coin is that the Lakers play more back-to-back games than any other team in the NBA (40) just under half their games, and now most of those will be ahead of them. In the rearview mirror are the Suns whom have played the least amount of games at home (10) of any team in the NBA and are unbeaten in the valley of the sun. The Lakers will need a cushion as it will be tougher to get separation in the second half of the season.

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Lakers biggest draw at home and on the road in 2009 

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Lakers take advantage of schedule to provide much needed rest to big men

The Lakes may be 5-1 an tied for the Pacific Division lead but clearly if they want to remain among the league’s elite they’ll need to get back to full strength, and that means the return of Pau Gasol and most recently, Andrew Bynum. Although Kobe has stepped up his game and averaged better than 30 points per game during the stretch, the Lakers upcoming stretch of games includes, Phoenix, with whom they share the division lead, Denver, last year’s conference runner up, Houston, Detroit, and Chicago. The Lakers didn’t push the return of the missing centers against the Hornets and still had a convincing 104-88 win. That game parlayed with a 3-day break in the schedule have provided for and additional 4.5 days of rest for the big men who hope to return to action when the Lakeshow host the Suns on Thursday night. It will be the first to two ‘statement games’, as the afore mentioned game with the Suns could establish an early stranglehold on the Pacific division, and the follow up with the Nuggets reinforces the fact that they are still the top team in the West and that a trip to the finals still goes through LA. 
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World Champions struggle to keep the core together

As soon as the parade was over, well actually during the parade, the questions were swarming if the Lakers were going to be able to keep their championship team in tact. Mainly free agents Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza, and Shannon Brown. The feeling in LA is that they have the components to make another trip back (and win) a second consecutive NBA title. After

Kobe

stated that he would not opt out of his extension it appeared that the off season in

La-La Land

would be as beautiful as the weather. Unfortunately there are some flaws in the planning of the “Purple Reign” sequel. Firstly, the Lakers need to get their house in order as they appear to be unclear on the Odom (10 million) deal and even further away from Ariza (5.6 vs. 8million) that his agent was looking for, and the Shannon Brown talks have yet to get off the ground. Even if LA can miraculously come to terms with all three that doesn’t ensure their ticket for a return engagement as the rest of the league has made additions in the draft the Lakers felt they had enough in the cubborad to stand pat, a major mistake. The move that may come back to haunt them is passing on the Pittsburgh twins (Blair and Young) who could have immediately helped their one blaring deficiency, getting out “physicaled” on the boards. They got plenty of firepower on offense what they need is an enforcer (aka Rick Fox, Coach Rambis). Although not complacent, perhaps too confident that their current hand will be good enough to withstand another flop, and even though they may be playing with house money as the last team to repeat, if the chips don’t fall into place USC can feel comfortable re-painting the Coliseum Cardinal and Gold again.