Metta World Peace More Vital Than a Trade for Los Angeles Lakers' Postseason

Everyone knows that in real life, world peace is more important than a basketball trade.

The same applies to the Los Angeles Lakers. 

Metta World Peace showed once again just how powerful the Lakers can become when he steps up. He has now become the X-factor of the team. It's almost a certainty that the Lakers will win if he plays to his potential.

This exemplifies the notion that the Lakers will be foolish to make a big trade. They should just stick with their guns and have faith in them. 

World Peace had 14 points, went 3-for-5 from beyond the arc and had a key steal which led to a dunk in the Lakers' 97-94 victory over the Boston Celtics on Sunday afternoon. He had a stalwart effort defensively as well, limiting Paul Pierce to just 4-for-14 shooting.

Metta was also vital in last week's victory over the Miami Heat, containing LeBron James in key situations in the fourth quarter. 

Let's just say that World Peace loves the limelight. When the game's on the line or the opponent is a championship-contending behemoth, he flips the switch and ignites. 

This has been the case with him ever since he was known as Ron Artest. In the 2010 championship run, Artest hit a game-winning shot against the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference Finals.

And everyone remembers what happened in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals against Boston.

Ever since the All-Star break, World Peace has contributed in every win and each time in different ways. He had a five assist performance against Minnesota on February 29th and in Friday's game against the Wolves, he provided a solid defensive effort. He also scored 15 points against Sacramento earlier this month. 

His two worst games since the break?

Detroit and Washington. Both resulted in losses.

This tells us that if Metta contributes, the Lakers win. Whether it's on offense or defense, MWP is a game-changer. Other teams already have their hands full trying to contain Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol in the paint and Kobe Bryant on the wing.

When MWP is on his game, kissing his biceps and flexing for the crowd after big plays, it just creates another problem for teams.

Once again, the Lakers don't need a trade, other than a slight upgrade at point guard. 

You can point your finger and blame the bench, Mike Brown, turnovers or whatever you'd like.

The numbers show that win or lose, the Lakers make the same amount of turnovers on the road and statistically speaking, the bench doesn't factor to wins either. Finally, blaming Mike Brown is unfair and irresponsible. He's turned the Lakers into an elite defensive team while replacing the legendary Phil Jackson. 

It's amazing that the Lakers have a chance to do some damage with this very team despite losing Lamar Odom for nothing. Brown deserves plenty of credit for that.

Factors that lead to the Lakers' losses are Kobe trying to take over the game, back-to-back contests on the road (exhaustion) and poor three-point shooting.

Many times when Kobe takes over the game, Bynum and Gasol don't even get the amount of touches and shot attempts they should be getting, let alone World Peace. 

Finally, MWP has been atrocious from the three-point line all year long. When he's on target though, his point total goes up and it helps the Lakers in a big way.

As for back to back games, the Lakers don't have to deal with those too often in the playoffs, so they'll be well rested when it matters most.

When Kobe distributes and facilitates the job for Bynum, Gasol and occasionally World Peace, and when MWP and the rest of the team doesn't get three-point happy, the wins start flowing in. 

This team isn't too difficult to diagnose. If a trade were meant to happen, it would've happened a long time ago. These are fixable problems that can be settled internally.

Kudos to Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak for not breaking during the public's demand for a change.

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