Coach Kobe and Season on the Brink

This Friday's game for the Lakers looms large. Should the Lakers lose it will be their sixth straight loss and it would also put them 6 games below .500. It is very easy in the NBA to make the playoffs. More than half of each conference make the playoffs each season. You can do it with a below .500 record, but the West will likely have all 8 teams in the positive. The Lakers will need to be at least a couple of games above even. It's hard to imagine once they get their bigs back they won't have a better run and catch an easier stretch than they are currently caught in. That all being said the Thunder game this Friday is not that big of a deal. The Lakers form is not going to improve over night and they are coming off a very tough stretch. A lose is likely. What's more important are the three games that come after Friday. They play the Cavs at home on Sunday night. A typical Sunday cupcake for the Lakers. Still they will likely be without their three bigs and coming off a rough week and extended minutes for Coach Kobe it may be a challenge. They follow that game up with a the Bucks on Tuesday. The Bucks have been pretty average, but they should give the Lakers a game. Then it gets really tough as the Heat roll into town. The possibility of a nine game losing streak could really bury the Lakers and with many tough contests to close the month out things could get very interesting. Coach Kobe, as I have proclaimed him, has tried motivating his teammates by bashing them in the media and taking to Twitter, but it hasn't worked. They haven't responded. I think the biggest challenges the Coach faces are the fact that Pau is unhappy, they have no bench, they have no one Trevor Ariza type on the bench, the Coach is not the right fit, and Steve Nash isn't at all the right fit for this team. I think that Pau's attitude is so poor that he has soured himself and won't have a change of heart with this team. It's time for Pau to move out, but the return value on him is going to be low. I don't think that Pau is on the major decline, but all the trade rumors and Kobe's funny way of acting towards him has basically just made him a bad apple. I don't know if the Lakers see it that way. I think they believe they sent their bad apple to Philly, but I don't think Pau will ever have the passion for the organization he once had. The Lakers have no bench. They are small on the bench, the have no veterans. They need to address this, but they don't really have much to offer other teams in the way of good players. One thought I've had is that they should bring Pau off the bench. They have enough scoring on in there starting lineup, but he could give them some punch off the bench. The Lakers don't have the up and coming star. They've had a the Devon Georges and Trevor Ariza's over the years that have surprised people with their skill level, but this Laker team lacks the up and coming player to give them that spark. D'Antonio isn't as bad of a coach as people make him out to be, but he is not the right fit for this team. They needed Phil Jackson to manage the ego's and build the team confidence. D'Antonio is a one and done and as most people believe Mike Brown should still be the coach. Steve Nash is always going to seem valuable to any team, but he's not the right fit for this Laker team. He looks like a fish out of water to me. Sunday Cav's can't wait!