Start small...

Los Angeles, CA

In Friday night's rematch of the Lakers-Kings, LA did what it needed to. With some late help from Kobe Bryant (32 Points), the Lakers held on to a 112-103 victory. In a game that was to be a rematch of Tuesday nights embarrassing 12 point loss, the Lakers, clearly still have work to do. The Lakers got the win, but let a bad team stay in the game for way too long. At the end of the second, third, and fourth quarters after gaining sizable advantages, the defense lapsed allowing Sacramento to remain close. Los Angeles also had a tough go from the charity stripe. Making only 60% of their shots (20/35), this is a trend they have been seeing for much of the past week. Free throw shooting is something that needs to be remedied for the Lakers. It's no wonder that even in the loss some of the Kings players had good things to say about their effort. John Salmons, who led Sacramento with 26, was the first to sound off.

"I think in the past, we would have quit before the game was over,'' he said. "We kept fighting and we were right there with them. At this point, we have to take anything that we can get.'' He also added, when asked about Kobe's performance, "The whole world knew that he was going to come out ready for this game,'' Salmons said. "So it is what it is - he is Kobe."

Pretty high praise, but then again, Kobe is regarded as the best player in the world. He was the best on this night, dazzling the crowd with a couple of spectacular dunks, leading the Lakers to their 19th win.

Los Angeles however, still has a lot of work to do defensively. This Kings team came to town with a 6-16 record and scored 103 points. Both the Celtics and Cavaliers have big double digit win streaks going, and defense is what propels both of those teams. Cleveland and Boston are 1 and 2 in opponents scoring avg. and 1 and 3 respectively in point differential in wins. The Lakers who started their season 7-0, were huge stand outs in both categories at the start. Now 15th in opponent scoring average, the Lakers have lost three games and the rest of the league is closing fast. When I watch this team, I can see the defense come and go when convenient. In order to win a championship and beat the likes of these top tier Eastern Conference teams, convenience is going to have to become consistence. Los Angeles often times gets slow starts and then plays a little D to get back in the game or to take a quick lead. We need to start games strong and send a message to the other teams. When the Lakers play dominating defense for the entire 60 minutes, no team can beat them, not even Boston or Cleveland. The other advantage of starting strong is we get those blowout games, allowing the starters to rest for a long playoffs run. In those instances, the Lakers also strike fear into their opponents. This makes it that much easier to win, as teams are thinking loss before they step on the floor.

Now with no game until we host Minnesota on Tuesday, I believe the coaching staff will be harping on defense all weekend long. Until we play a consistent defensive game, we have no right to talk about our team as one of the championship contenders. Everybody knows defense wins rings. The Lakers should know this first hand after suffering defeat to a more dominant Celtics team last year.