Lakers' Biggest Challenge Wears Purple and Gold

Sean Deveney - SportingNews.com

Coming off a championship, it was little surprise that the Lakers entered the season favored to win the conference and return to The Finals for the third straight year. What is surprising is the tepid resistance the rest of the West is putting forth. "We don't really worry about the other teams," Lakers star Kobe Bryant says. "We feel like, if we take care of what we're supposed to do, we're going to win. So it's on us."

Bryant is right -- with the gap between the Lakers and the rest of the conference getting wider, it sure looks as though their biggest challenge will be avoiding the internal pitfalls that will present themselves throughout the season:

1. Complacency

Last season, the Lakers played with a laser focus, driven by the memory of an embarrassing loss to the Celtics in the last game of the 2008 Finals. This year, there's no obvious motivator, and the NBA has seen a fair number of champions lack the wire-to-wire intensity needed to repeat.

SF Ron Artest says: "When you are blowing everybody out, it is hard to get up for a team. You might come in and just think you are going to blow everybody out, so what is the difference? You have to find ways to motivate yourself to get better every game of the season, even if the game is not close. That's one thing we have tried to do."

2. Injuries

The Lakers don't need to be reminded how important good health can be -- they lost center Andrew Bynum for long stretches each of the past two seasons, and they started this season with power forward Pau Gasol out for the first 11 games. Lamar Odom's presence as sixth man gives the team exceptional versatility, but if injury forces him into the starting five, the Lakers' bench gets very weak.

Gasol says: "Some of it is just luck -- someone gets hurt, and it is just bad luck. There is nothing you can do. But, also, it is important to listen to the trainers and doctors and be patient. If you are injured early in the season, let it get better so it does not come back. We have a good team; we can win games. No one has to hurry back."

3. The bull's-eye

Things get a little more difficult for any defending champ. It becomes a measuring stick, and opponents want to prove their muster by putting up their best effort. Crowds away from home tend to be amped up -- the Lakers lead the league in road attendance -- and the atmosphere is especially hostile.

Odom says: "You have to understand you are now the target. Teams want to beat you, they compare themselves to you. That is what we expect. Because we know that, we know we have to stay sharp. We go at it hard in practice. We really go at it. We push each other, it's a game atmosphere. When we get out there and we are expecting a team's best shot, we are prepared because we've been doing that to each other in practice."

Sean Deveney is a staff writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at sdeveney@sportingnews.com.

----

More basketball news

More sport news

Sports home

Copyright 2012 by SportingNews.com