Kobe...Last second...of course! Again!

Kobe hit another game winning shot against the Kings the other day. It was his third in the past few weeks. Its great he is hitting these shots. My concern is with the Lakers overall. Ron Artest has been out for a while after Christmas. He had an injury falling down the stairs or something to that effect bringing down Christmas boxes. He had a concussion and injury to his left elbow. He is still recovering and is "hopeful" to return soon. The Lakers defensively have been kind of terrible since Artest has been out of the lineup. I know Ron provides a lot, but there is no excuse to be this bad. The Lakers overall seem to be falling to the trap at times to playing at the level of the competition. The bench needs to step up. Last night, they blew out the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavs gave them their first home loss, so it could have been a more focused group to get revenge. I hope to see the Lakers play more consistent. The bench played well in the game. Unfortunately, Pau went out with a strained hamstring. That isn't good news, because when Pau plays, the Lakers tend to win. Hopefully Pau comes back soon. Funny thing about Pau was that his game seemed to decline after he signed his contract extension. He was averaging monster boards like 18+ a game for a few games. Soon after signing his contract, he was getting like 5 or 6 boards in games. Hmmmmm. Seriously, I think it was more coincidental and he has seemed to pick it up in these more recent games. However, now he may be out for a while. We will see. Lakers still have the best record, but the Cavs have been playing real well recently.