Lakers Still Green With Envy

20 games into the season so much of the talk has been about the L.A. Lakers and how the return of a healthy Andrew Bynum now makes them a very likely NBA Champion. But over the past week, the Lakers have looked like a team of youth that isn't quite sure how to take care of over matched opponents and close games out in the 4th quarter.

Meanwhile, there is a team in Bean Town (the reigning World Champions mind you) that as just notched their 13th straight win and as quietly as you can is off to a 21-2 start (Lakers are 18-3). I realize the Lakers have unbelievable depth. They are sitting a former starter in Luke Walton and have demoted a perennial starter in Lamar Odom to the 2nd unit. But nevertheless, the ugly head that is inexperience seems to be peeking out from behind the curtain and we are only a month into the season. If Los Angeles can't put away a Kings team which had lost 8 straight or a last place Pacers squad, how are they going to win a long series against a Western powerhouse and then put away a veteran Celtics team (barring an amazing run from King James and the Cavs)?

This isn't to say that you should write off the Lakers chances of making it back to the NBA finals...in fact, I still think they are the favorite out of the West. But changes need to take place and a lot of that burden falls on Kobe Bryant to step up and take some of the pressure off his young role players. In L.A.'s 3 losses, the teams they fell to have a combined 24-39 record. That is really bad!!! Compare that to the Celtics who have 2 losses to teams with a combined 22-21 record and the Cavilers who are 19-3 with their 3 losses coming to teams whose records are 44-17.

Clearly, Los Angeles isn't getting the job done when they should be. It is way too early to write off the Lakers, but it is safe to say that L.A. won't be threatening the 72-10 mark that just 2 weeks ago was thought to be in their grasp. Get ready for Dec. 25th, because that will be a huge test and we will get to see if the Lakers can past a team that clearly is still the elusive rabbit.