The good news for the Los Angeles Lakers is that they don't have another road game for another week. The Lakers have a pair of home games in the upcoming week before hitting the road again, where Los Angeles is an un-Laker-like 1-6 away from home. The latest loss came Friday night in Orlando, where Dwight Howard was a man among boys in the 92-80 win for the Magic.
The question is, are the Lakers broken? It is a quandary that C.A. Clark tried to ponder at Silver Screen and Roll. The two-day Florida road trip, which also included a 98-87 loss to LeBron James and the Miami Heat, made Clark wonder whether or not the Lakers measure up to the best in the league. "Through all the highs and lows this team has gone through in the past few seasons, they have rarely been outclassed so thoroughly as they have in the past 48 hours," Clark noted.
The top of the Lakers' roster is on par with other championship contenders, as Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, and Pau Gasol remain among the very best at their positions. But the rest of the roster in purple and gold is, frankly, filler, said Clark:
The only guys on the Lakers roster who can drain an outside shot are the team's biggest defensive liabilities ... Troy Murphy and Jason Kapono might be able to keep defenses honest, but they cause more problems than they solve. Metta World Peace played only 8 minutes on a night in which neither Matt Barnes nor Kapono were doing anything noteworthy. Darius Morris is getting 15 minutes a game in Steve Blake's absence and quickly quieting all those folks who thought he should be pushing Derek Fisher for playing time ... you look at this roster and can't help but think there are no good answers to be found.
The team's offensive problems were known heading into the season, which is why David Stern's vetoing of the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers all the more devastating. Still, with Howard still the big prize on the market via trade, there is a glimmer of hope of the Lakers improving the roster.
However, Clark offered a sobering thought about a potential acquisition of the superstar center, writing "If the Lakers trade for Dwight Howard, they will simply be a better version of themselves. Seeing the way this team plays on a daily basis, that sure doesn't seem like it would be good enough."
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