Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports[/caption]The one opponent no team would willingly choose to face in the first round of the NBA Playoffs in the Western Conference is now on the brink of taking over the eighth seed for the post-season. The expectations have been sky-high all season long and the difference between now and earlier this season is that the team is finally living up to them almost 60 games in.
The Los Angeles Lakers have had a highly scrutinized, highly publicized season because of just about every imaginable distraction getting in their way.
Players have suffered injuries, one coach was fired and replaced by another, the team has had player-to-player and player-to-coach drama and there has been considerable malcontent within the locker room that has also been evident out on the court.
Despite all of this and more, the Lakers have turned things around and look like a very dangerous team. They have star power, good role players and enough depth to challenge any team in the playoffs.
Kobe Bryant has led this team for years and this season is no different. He is the ringleader, team captain and most important player on the court for L.A. at all times. If he is on, they can beat any and everybody. If he is off, the Lakers are vulnerable and very beatable.
Dwight Howard, after announcing that the season was just beginning for the Lakers multiple times already, has really shown improvement since the All-Star Break two weeks ago.
It is obvious he is still hampered by his shoulder injury and is nowhere near 100-percent, but he is giving a lot more effort defensively to disrupt things in the paint and he is crashing the boards on offense with much more authority.
Howard has received extensive criticism because of the smiles or smirks that never seems to leave his face, no matter the outcome of the Lakers games. The team could be winning or losing, he could have missed 10 free throws or made 15 in a row; the point being that he is always smiling or laughing and many NBA minds take that as a lack of caring on his part.
The talk seemed to have gotten to him, because he is taking the game much more seriously as of late and it is benefiting the Lakers more than anybody.
There is no debating that these two teammates hold the keys to success for Los Angeles. Are Steve Nash and Pau Gasol important to this team? There is no doubting that they are, but their individual play is often irrelevant in the landscape of an entire game.
It is more pivotal that Bryant is making a high percentage of his shot attempts while also incorporating his teammates into the game on offense and that Howard is being aggressive on both ends of the floor.
At 29-30, this L.A. team is a far cry from the greatness that was supposed to be before the season began. By acquiring Howard and Nash, they instantly became everybody’s shoe-in for the Western Conference representative in the NBA Finals. To some, they even became the odds-on favorite to win the title.
To the surprise and disappointment of many, it was clear from the very first game of the season -- and even the preseason -- that one could argue that this team was going to take a lot longer to gel and figure each other out than what we wanted to put up with. This was, after all, an experiment from day one.
Combining superstars, stars and role players who are used to bigger roles in the offense has all the makings of a disaster when you really think about it.
Players who were the go-to guys on other teams are forced to take a backseat to Bryant and Howard and put on a smile while doing it. It is asking a lot out of players to play outside of their comfort-zone for the good of a team that for months was not functioning.
As the NBA season’s progresses and teammates start to get used to each other, naturally they find a way to be successful. For all the reported consternation and turmoil amongst this set of teammates, they are playing really, really good basketball.
They have climbed the Western Conference standings since their less-than-desirable start and had a fabulous month of February going 9-4 with losses to the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets, all that are playoff-bound teams. Now that March is here, what can we expect from the Lakers?
I expect them to continue distancing themselves from their competitors trying to assert themselves into the playoff-mix while simultaneously gaining on and eventually overtaking both the Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz, who hold the eighth and seventh seed respectively.
I will even go as far as saying they will come very, very close to passing the Golden State Warriors in the standings, but will be held off as the season comes to a close in a few months.
If you look at the playoff-picture out West and how it is structured, it really is a four-horse race for the final two spots featuring the Jazz, Rockets, Lakers and the Portland Trail Blazers.
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Doug Pensinger/Getty Images[/caption]The Jazz currently hold -- and have held for a while -- what would be the seventh seed in the West with an overall record of 32-27. They have played well enough to make it into the playoffs this season. At the same time, being only five games above .500 shouldn’t necessarily make Jazz fans feel comfortable or safe with teams like the Lakers nipping at their heels.
The Rockets are the most important team in the West because every game they win or lose affects the couple of teams below them that are still within reach.
The Rockets are 5-5 in their last 10 games and are only a half game behind Utah at a record of 32-28. The Rockets have played above expectations for much of the season, which leads me to believe a drop off may be coming. The plot continues to thicken as more teams either plummet or rise towards the .500 winning-percentage mark in the West.
The Lakers, as mentioned above, are playing some inspired basketball and seem to finally be taking on an identity. They are one game below .500 and have won six of their last 10 games.
If I was affiliated with the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder or Clippers, I would be weary of drawing the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. Do not be mistaken: these Lakers are good enough to beat any of those three in a seven game set.
When you really consider the regular season in its entirety, the only aspects of it that matter are having a good enough record to reach the playoffs and which teams are the hottest entering the post-season. The Lakers are picking teams apart and fit the criteria of a team finding out exactly what they are capable of at the right time.
A club that is a little less talked about is the one directly that is below the Lakers in the Western Conference standings- down but not completely out -- are the Trail Blazers, who are are 26-31 and look to have lost some of the steam they had at the start of the season.
I am sure that Kobe and company are aware of the Blazers behind them, but they are surely more focused on what and who lies ahead of them as they control their own destiny more than anyone else does in the coming months. They will have to scratch and claw to get the necessary number of wins and I am more than confident they will do so.
The odds of the Lakers making the playoffs is much better now than it has been for the entire season leading up to this day. The closer they get to being permanently inserted into the playoff-picture, the harder they will play.
No longer are the days where this team takes games off or allows for petty mistakes and mental miscues. They are in a zone and may just end up delivering on those lofty expectations everyone placed on them before the season began.
