Yoshi

[CameronFrye]

As a Lakers fan, I have to ask: does it bother you when a 34-44 team treats a regular season game against your team like it's the NBA finals?

Personally, as a Warriors fan it bugs the hell out of me that the team can do so many things right against a team as good as the Lakers but not be able to show half that intensity on other nights against teams like the Kings or the Clippers.

 

[Yoshi]

Hey Cam,
Well it's no secret the Warriors give the Lakers a lot of matchup problems. The Warriors have D. Wright, Ellis, and Curry which are 3 quality players on the perimeter. Ellis is the closest version to Iverson that I've seen, but of course, Ellis is taller. With that said, the Warriors obviously need interior presence and they need depth.

As for the Lakers, truth be told they are playing flat. They always seem to do this every year where they just coast along. I'm not saying that they are invincible and all, but they have a bad habit of playing craptacular ball. It's annoying as hell, and to see them lose to the Jazz, Denver, the Warriors, and now Portland makes you scratch your head. But like I said, the Lakers have these issues losing games in bunches like this. They remind me of the Sharks in a way - they don't play a full game of basketball from start to finish but if they did, they are almost unstoppable. The Lakers legitimate weakness this year is at the PG position, especially on defense. That is something that they're going to have to figure out with Brown and Blake since Fisher can not guard anymore.

With the Spurs having consistency issues, I like the Lakers coming out of the west (assuming they hold onto the 2nd seed in the west - they're schedule with OKC, San Antonio, and the Kings should be interesting, but 2 of those 3 games are at Staples). The teams that could give the Lakers problems are Denver, possibly Portland, and San Antonio. However, on paper, the Lakers will provide matchup problems with those guys. Gasol, however is the X - factor this season because his lackluster play at times has cost the Lakers this season.