Lakers In Trouble?

Spell that with a capital T for serious Trouble.  I’ve been saying it all along.  The Lakers defense – or rather lack of – would catch up to them.  And now it has.

At a time when leading title contenders should be playing their best basketball to build momentum going into the playoffs, the Lakers are doing anything but.  When teams like Cleveland (8 in a row), Denver (5 in a row), Orlando (8 out of 10) are on a roll, the Lakers and Celtics are on a lull – as in lulled to sleep.

It seems like the Lakers just can’t stay awake once they have a double digit lead.  They begin committing turnovers and jacking up threes until they find themselves in a tight ball game.  Fortunately, Kobe Bryant has been able to pull out most of those tight games in the final minutes.

But that wasn’t the case the other night against Philadelphia at the Staples Center.  The Lakers blew an 11-point first-half lead.  Then, as if that wasn’t enough, they did a spectacular encore by blowing a 14-point fourth quarter lead.

Instead of going to the basket to take advantage of their size differential, they waited around for Mr. MVP to bail them out once again.  He did.  But only briefly.  After missing three straight shots that allowed Philadelphia to tie it up, he finally hit a 21-foot jumper to put the Lakers up by two points.

But to show you what a lull this team is in, picture this.  Six seconds left.  Philadelphia’s ball, timeout.  Phil Jackson writes “We have foul to give” on the board.  Did they?

No, Trevor Ariza let Andre Igoudala dribble up to the arc and launch the game-winning three-pointer that gave the streaking Cavaliers the best record in the NBA and put them a game up on the Lakers for home court advantage in the finals.

Does it matter?  No, not at all.  Really?

No, because the Lakers will not be in the finals.  That’s right.  I’ve been warning all season long that the Lakers won’t even make the finals if they don’t tighten up their defense.  Now, I’m no longer warning.  I’m PREDICTING that the Lakers will NOT make the NBA Finals.

If you think I’m wrong, picture this.  After the Philadelphia fiasco, you would think a championship caliber team would not let a double-digit lead evaporate on them again, especially not in their very next game.

Oh, no.  These guys are better than Mandrake, the Magician.  What did they do against Golden State, a team that has lost two-thirds of their games and had their leading scorer, Jamal Crawford, in street clothes?  The Lakers made an 18-point lead vanish into thin air.

Man, these guys have such a great vanishing act that they should be playing in Las Vegas instead of Los Angeles.

And for the Lakers faithful who are hoping Andrew Bynum will be their salvation, Bynum and Greg Oden are quick to injure and slow to mend.  I had to chuckle when I heard Bynum’s latest knee injury would have him out 8-12 weeks.  I was certain it would be the latter rather than the former, which has already come and gone.

Now, according to Phil Jackson, Bynum is at least a month away from returning.  The NBA playoffs begin April 18th.  But remember, returning is not the same as playing up to speed.  Anyone who has followed the Lakers knows that it takes Bynum a good three to four weeks to reach optimal game conditioning.

With their lacksadaisical defense and Kobe Bryant-dependency continuing, I not only expect but predict the Lakers to be on vacation by then.