Come on, as funny as that is, you know that has nothing to do with how good they are. They just slipped up mentally. They probably nodded off a little during film sessions and scouting reports of the Kings and wrote this game off as a W, just show up and it's a W. Well, even with that mindset they almost won.
You can look at it like that or you can look at they almost lost in Sacramento awhile ago too. Their best scorer is Kobe and then Gasol. Outside of those 2 I dont see any of their role players as being consistent. Odom is a choker. Sashsa is a dumbass. Derek is off and on with the 3. They are a good team but they arent that much better. Maybe when Bynum comes back but right now they arent. I mean theres like 5-6 teams in the west with similar records to them.
Hey...we almost lost to Sacramento as well. If it wasn't for a last second three from a youngin'...we would have got pwned. Sacramento usually plays most teams tough (i said usually, lol), they are just really bad at finishing games out. Kevin Martin isn't hardened in the clutch yet and Artest doesn't always make his shots. My point is, yeah a lot of teams in the West have the same record as the Lakers, but a lot of teams in the West have lost or almost lost to the Kings, including us. Look at it this way, Kobe was enough on his own to win games usually, now he has Gasol to help him out? It doesn't matter if the rest of the team sucks they will get enough easy looks to make them look like All-Stars. I hate that the Lakers were able to steal Gasol. It wasn't even a steal, it was like a charity drive! It wasn't giving up Kwame to get Pau, it was getting RID of him... Completely lobsided trade. Javaris has had some brilliant games in Memphis but it's not enough to make the Lakers regret ANYTHING about that trade. But yes, we are almost up there with them. As Battier (or was it Novak?) said: "It only took us an 18 game win streak to do it." That sounds like something Novak would say.
Tmac can win games on his own too and now he has a load of players helping him out. Are you really telling me that the Rockets can't match the Lakers right now? I thought I remember the Rockets always playing the Lakers pretty tough and winning some as well. Gasol makes a difference is good but he's not great. Theres like a big ol thread on the Lakers forum about him being soft.
