Los Angeles Lakers: 5 Things That Can Keep the Team from Winning NBA Title

The Los Angeles Lakers showed Wednesday night that they're easily going to be one of the main contenders in the Western Conference for an NBA title.

Ramon Sessions has really given the team a jolt, and it's not hard to see this when you watch the Lakers play. Sessions has the ability to slash, hit threes and create offensive opportunities for his teammates. His above-average defensive skills also make the team better on the other end of the floor.

That's not where it ends, though. Andrew Bynum's dominance in the paint makes him the primary go-to guy. He can't be stopped, and his size presents a major problem for most teams. 

Throw in Pau Gasol's mid-range game and Kobe's excellence, and you got yourself a championship team.

The Lakers defense is currently stellar. Criticize Mike Brown all you want, he's taught this team how to play some stifling defense. Opponents are currently shooting 42.5 percent against the Lakers, the third lowest total in the league. They're also top 10 in points allowed.

Offensively, they're slowly rising because of their new addition, Ramon Sessions, and Bynum's emergence as arguably the best center in the league.

Finally, they're an unstoppable home team with an 18-3 record in the friendly confines of Staples Center. 

All of that being said, the team is not perfect. Several factors may come into play and prevent them from winning a title. 

Getting into Bad Three-Point Shooting Habits

How many times have we seen the Los Angeles Lakers chuck countless threes on ill-fated shot attempts this season?

Too many.

We've seen Steve Blake, Derek Fisher, Metta World Peace and even Kobe Bryant fall victim to terrible three-point shooting. 

Part of this is because the offense wasn't in sync because of Mike Brown's new system, resulting in the offense not having have much flow. The Lakers would run the shot clock down and not end up getting any good looks, forcing themselves to take low-percentage three-point shot attempts.

The addition of Ramon Sessions has changed this drastically, as seen in the table below.

Opponent	Threes Made	Threes Attempted	3PT PCT
MIN	10	22	45.5
UTAH	2	13	15.4
HOU	6	16	37.5
DAL	9	18	50
With Sessions	27	69	39.1
Before Sessions	225	739	30.4

Sessions brings flow to the offense and facilitates the job for everyone else. Because of this, the team is able to get better shot attempts and more open looks. 

The Lakers have been moving the ball around more fluidly, and the overall flow to the offense has been more smooth with Sessions in the lineup. It's slowly starting to resemble the deadly offenses of the Phil Jackson era.

That being said, the Lakers have to continue this trend and not revert back to old ways, especially when they fall behind in games.

In the worst case, the team should pound it inside to their bigs and get easy points in that manner rather than force up shots. 

Kobe Trying to Take over the Game by Himself

There have been numerous instances this season where Kobe Bryant has attempted to put the entire game on his shoulders when the Lakers are down in points.

Oftentimes, these games haven't ended well. 

Rather than getting his bigs involved, Kobe ends up taking too many shots. For example, he recently shot 3-of-20 in a home loss against Utah. His shots weren't going in, and he knew it wasn't his best shooting night. 

That being said, he continued to take shots instead of passing the rock to his All-Star bigs in the paint.

The good news is that Kobe recently said that the newly acquired Ramon Sessions takes loads of pressure off him. If he allows Sessions to run the show, that means other players will be getting more touches.

Lakers fans hope that he doesn't lose faith in his new point guard quickly and revert back to his selfish ways. 

Injuries

The Los Angeles Lakers have been good with this one so far. 

They've managed to stay healthy all year long without any major injuries. Although Kobe is banged up, it doesn't seem like anything is going to keep him out of the lineup.

That said, an Andrew Bynum injury will shatter any hopes of an NBA title. Bynum has been injury-prone in recent years, but so far has played in every game after he returned from his four-game suspension at the start of the season.

Complacency

It doesn't matter how good your team is—if you're not focused, wins are going to be hard to come by.

We saw the L.A. Lakers be more complacent last season when they were defending champions. It seemed like they wouldn't put in a full effort against the cellar dwellers. Some games they were into it, and in others they were checked out.

This season has been different, though. They've had a plethora of challenges to overcome, so they've been forced to be mentally prepared every game.

But now that they have Ramon Sessions and are slowly looking like a top-three team in the Western Conference, they might start taking their foot off the gas pedal.

In fact, three of the last four losses have been against teams they should've been able to defeat. They opened up large leads against Detroit, Washington and Houston, and ended up blowing the leads. 

This can't happen in the playoffs. The team needs to accelerate 100 percent of the time, until there are triple zeroes on the game clock. 

LeBron James

Let's assume that none of the previously mentioned issues harm the Los Angeles Lakers.

They still have to deal with a motivated LeBron James and his band of Miami Heat. They're extremely hungry and look unstoppable with their Big Three. 

The Heat have developed their chemistry, and after unexpectedly making the NBA Finals in their first season together, they're ready to do more this season.

If there's one team that will be able to overcome a Lakers team that's absolutely on fire, it's going to be these guys.