The State of the Lakers: Can they repeat?

The Los Angeles Lakers finished the regular season with a record of 57-25. Los Angeles finished with the third best record in the NBA, and clinched the first seed in the Western Conference playoffs. Smooth sailing ahead for Los Angeles, right?

Wrong. The Los Angeles Lakers are not playing like they are the NBA’s defending champions. Instead, they are playing like its 2005, when the Lakers finished with a lowly 34-48 record. Having lost seven of their last eleven games, the Lakers have a lot of issues heading in to the 2010 NBA playoffs.

The NBA’s western conference is as talented and as deep as its ever been, with every playoff team in the West finishing with at least 50 wins during the the regular season. Before the Lakers can worry about their first round opponent, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Lakers must first worry about themselves.

The Lakers have their fair share of problems to deal with heading into the playoffs.

Kobe Bryant is a still banged up and missed five of the Lakers final six games in the regular season. Even when Bryant has played, he has been off his game as of late. In the three games Kobe has played in during the month of April, Bryant has only made 30% of his shots, well below his season average of 46%.

Starting center Andrew Bynum hasn't played since March 19th due to injury but the Lakers do expect to work him back into the lineup as the playoffs progress.

The off-season 'swap' with of Forward Trevor Ariza for Ron Artest hasn't worked out in the Lakers favor either. Artest has been inconsistent all season for Los Angeles, and is only averaging eleven points and four rebounds per game.

And on top of it all, the Lakers are slated to play one of the NBA's youngest and talented teams in the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder are led by 21 year old Kevin Durant, who set the record this season for being the youngest player in NBA history to lead the league in points per game. While the Thunder may lack experience, they certainly don't lack playmakers as PG Russell Westbrook and Forward Jeff Green both average over 15 ppg to add on to Durants average of 30.1 points per game. The Lakers are still the favorites in the series, but when only seven games seperates the top seed and the bottom seed in the Western Conference, how much of an 'upset' would it be if the Thunder won the series against the NBAs defending champions?

The last time the Lakers and Thunder played was on March 26th. The game was played in Oklahoma City and Kevin Durant scored 26 points to lead the Thunder to an impressive 91-75 win over the Lakers, who at the time were on a seven game winning streak.

While the Lakers did finish 3-1 against the Thunder during the regular season, it looks as if Oklahoma City is peaking at the right time while Los Angeles is sliding.

Life for the NBA's defending champions is rough right now. The one question is: Can the Los Angeles Lakers turn it around?

The obvious answer, to me, is yes. After all, the Lakers still do have the best coach in the history of basketball in Phil Jackson and arguably the best player in the world in Kobe Bryant. Not to mention, the Lakers will have homecourt advantage all throughout the Western Conference playoffs as well.

Kobe Bryant is too good and too hungry for another title to let his recent shooting slump continue into the playoffs. Andrew Bynum will be back sooner rather than later and will gradually be worked back in to the Lakers lineup. When healthy, the combination of Bynum and Gasol could be the best frontcourt duo in the NBA.

So while life in Los Angeles may seem gloomy right now with the Lakers current slump, look on the bright side and remember that this is still the same Lakers team (minus Trevor Ariza, add Ron Artest) that won the 2009 NBA championship. Lakers fans, you can breathe a little easier now and remember, "The night is darkest just before the dawn, and the dawn is coming."