Los Angeles Lakers Face Pivotal Week in Season

The Los Angeles Lakers have seen a five game win streak come and go but once again have hit a rough patch after losing their first game of 2013.

The Lakers can’t seem to get past .500 mark this season and looking forward to the week ahead signs are it is only going to get further away. Major questions of the teams dynamics are continuing as the season gets deeper.

There continues to be an issue with consistency and coping with opponent’s higher levels of energy when on the basketball court. Kobe Bryant has signaled that age is an issue for the team which makes it important that an answer needs to be planned out sooner rather than later for the Lakers to overcome the limitations of an aging roster.

After the latest defeat against Philadelphia 76ers, Steve Nash was left perplexed of what is happening at the Staples Center.

“It’s confounding. It’s frustrating. We’re in a tough position. We really have a lot of ground to make up. We’re not finding a lot of answers right now, and we’re struggling a little bit. We need common experiences. So far we just look like, I think, a bunch of guys who are trying to learn each other. We don’t have that understanding yet. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re running out of time here. We can’t necessarily hit the panic button, but there needs to be a better sense of urgency.”

What makes their need for improvement even more urgent is the schedule over the next week, starting tonight. In what is essentially an away game they will come up against the Los Angeles Clippers tonight, then the Denver Nuggets in LA on Sunday, January 6th, the Houston Rockets in Houston on January 8th, the San Antonio Spurs in San Antonio on January 9th and the Oklahoma City Thunder on January 11th at Staples.

What is even more worrisome is the fact that the Lakers have lost to each of these teams already this season and are all above .500 for the season.

The next five games for the Lakers is a fantastic chance for the team to respond to the plenty of criticisms they are facing and could prove to be a pivotal week in the season.

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