Kobe's Streak Ends as Lakers Seek Stability on the Road

Not even the brilliance of Kobe Bryant could save the Los Angeles Lakers this time as Bryant, for the first time in five tries, failed to convert an attempt at the buzzer and the Lakers fell to the Toronto Raptors on the road.

There surely wasn't a lack of effort on Bryant's part as he fell one assist shy of a triple-double while scoring 27 points and collecting 16 rebounds in another superb effort which his teammates failed to match.

Failed to match might not be the right phrase because the Lakers were clicking on all cylinders on the offensive end, but the holes in the defense were once again highlighted in their 106-105 loss.

This is starting to look like the Lakers are caught in a nightmare from which they can't be awakened. Their issues are easy to pinpoint, but much harder solve.

People in Los Angeles may not want to admit it, but Ron Artest has not been the same player since he took his Christmas Day tumble down the stairs. His renowned defense has abandoned him lately.

And it's not just one area in which he's suffering. Everything from his man-to-man defense to his switching on defensive rotations has hurt the Lakers in game-deciding pivotal stretches.

Coach Phil Jackson says it's due to the fact Artest is not fully assimilated into the Laker scheme just yet, but that is something which would be more visible on the offensive end rather than the defensive.

On defense, the Laker scheme is fairly simple: Play straight man-to-man with as little double-teaming as possible, and remain cognizant of your defensive rotations when the offense shifts.

Pretty cut and dried, if you ask me. But the problems that have plagued Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol are anything but simple because their problems have more to do with desire and passion than anything else.

They have the length, the talent, and the size but seem to lack the inner toughness needed to compete with the more physical teams in the East. Plus, neither seem to be comfortable more than ten feet from the basket on defense.

Their tale, however, is for another day, because the main story here regards which Laker will take it upon himself to relieve some of the pressure that Bryant faces on a nightly basis.

There have been calls for Bryant to shut himself down, but how realistic is that, considering if not for his heroics, the Lakers would find themselves four wins lighter and looking up in the Western Conference?

More puzzling is that every one of Kobe's last-second victims, save the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks, have a losing record and practically no shot under God's green earth at the postseason.

That speaks more to Bryant's teammates than Bryant himself, because no one can deny his desire, passion, tenacity, or will to win under all costs, and it's time for his compatriots to soak up some of those traits and produce.

Some say that shoots to much, but his 11-24 shooting against Toronto was pretty efficient to me. In fact, I would go so far as to say that maybe Bryant should up his shot total, fractured finger and all, if his teammates fail to compensate.

Seriously, who among us really feels the Lakers will succeed minus Bryant, with the brutal final stretch the Lakers will face in the next month and a half?

Some point to Jackson and his laid back manner, and say that his team is a reflection of him and that it worked for his Chicago Bulls teams of the '90s. That may be true, but the Bulls teams of the '90s and the present-day Lakers have one important difference.

Those teams contained other players who were just as hungry as Michael Jordan was, one in particular. So my question is, who will step up and be this team's Scottie Pippen?

The first crucial road trip for the Lakers have shown us many things, but the most important may be that this team doesn't stand a chance in hell if Kobe Bryant is forced to sit for any significant amount of time.