2010 NBA Playoffs: 10 Questions Concerning a Los Angeles Lakers’ Repeat

The Los Angeles Lakers are preparing to embark on a journey in hopes of defending their NBA championship of 2009, but they enter the postseason under different circumstances from last year. The Lakers still finished as the best regular season team in the Western Conference for the third straight year, but many observers feel Los Angeles is nowhere near their previous championship level of play. The Lakers have battled injuries, inconsistency, poor reserve play, and an inability to defend the point guard position, while the rest of the league has gotten better. Teams like Dallas and Denver in the West and Orlando and Cleveland in the East, all improved their rosters with hopes of closing the gap between themselves and the Lakers. It may have worked, because while the Lakers have been successful, the Nuggets and Mavericks were able to inch closer in the final Western standings and the Magic and Cavaliers will both finish with superior records. Some feel the Lakers will fail to make it out of the West, much less compete for a second consecutive championship, but one thing is certain. The journey will definitely be difficult, and if the Lakers hope to reach the NBA Finals there are several questions they must confront and answer in order to proceed to league greatness. I have compiled 10 questions concerning the Lakers and their bid for a repeat, and how they respond will likely determine their postseason fate. Please feel free to comment with questions of your own, as there are certain to be some I may have missed, and give your own thoughts to the validity of the Lakers chances. There is a chance the Lakers could do everything well and still fail to repeat because the league has improved, but to have a realistic shot at another title, Los Angeles must answer these questions. Begin Slideshow

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