The Lakers historically haven't always showed up ready to play on Christmas, so I'm not going to focus on the Christmas day game.
They've lost ugly on Christmas before and have won rings that same season.
The Lakers are a championship-level caliber team, so they deserve the benefit of the doubt and give them credit for being able to bring themselves out of ruts. Especially being that they are a Phil Jackson coached team.
However, at no point since Pau Gasol arrived in L.A., the Lakers have gone through so many stretches of poor-play now than they've displayed so far in the first 30 games this season.
Rather than isolated issues and tailspins, this has been more a case of lingering malaise.
So, although the sky is not falling, this is getting disturbing—not only for fans, but for the team as well.
Head coach Jackson has uncharacteristically come out and asked Laker fans to "just be patient with us."
He continued to say: "at this point in the season, with the record that we have, we have to live with what we have. We have a record that's adequate for this point in the year. We're not pleased, obviously, to have nine losses…but we are what we are right now."
Kobe Bryant also reportedly taunted LeBron James during the game, dropping an "I'm a champion" remark on him as his team was going down in defeat. Kobe is a notorious trash-talker; however, one has got to look at this taunt as pulling at straws—as well as being something that might motivate James on down the line.
Kobe never forgot the taunts thrown his way from Shaquille O'Neal, it is doubtful that LeBron will forget this particular one.
One only had to see the scowl on Kobe's face during his Christmas day postgame press conference to know what Kobe thought about his team's performance. However, this h...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
