Looking at the Los Angeles Lakers at Midway Point

The most notable item that is missing is the intense defense for 48 minutes.  The Lakers seemed resilient and motivated early in the season from their Game 6 bashing against the Celtics in the NBA Finals.  For some reason mid-November, their team defense and transition defense disappeared. 

They were beating teams by 15+ points, and my only guess is that they started getting bored and lost the mental edge.  It seems that couple games prior to beating the Celtics and Christmas game against the Celtics was the sign of rejuvenated emphasis on defense. 

Apparently I was wrong. 

Lakers have a lot of offensive talent, but when the offense goes cold, the only constant is solid team defense.  The Lakers need to defend better on the pick and roll rotation and transition defense.

The next issue is injuries catching up to this young Lakers team.  The Lakers are one of the best in the depth chart, but Jordan Farmar, Lamar Odom, Luke Walton, and Sasha Vujacic have been hit by the injury bug. 

The Lakers have not taken a hit too much in the loss column, but more minutes are being added to aged veterans like Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher.  I think the Lakers need to make a move before the deadline to acquire a third string point guard like Tyronn Lue or Jannero Pargo because I do not think Sun Yue is cut for the NBA yet.

Not having a young and speedy point is hurting the Lakers.  Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar get burned continuously by the speedy point guards of the NBA.  Dribble penetration is one thing that hurts the Lakers in their defensive rotations, and I think this will become a problem since Lakers are not that quick to rotate in the first place. 

Tyronn Lue did a magnificent job back in 2001 against Allen Iverson in the NBA Finals.  He has gotten older since then, but I think he can add some quickness and depth at the point guard position.

The fourth item the Lakers need to work on is getting the ball in the post more often to Pau, Andrew, or Lamar.  Lakers have the floor well spread, but I think it is a waste to have someone like Andrew position himself on the high post or go for high screen and rolls.  I think he needs to have more opportunities with his back to the basket because of his size and length. 

For Pau and Lamar, they just need more touches closer to the basket to take advantage of their height too.

These are the top four concerns for the Lakers right now.  There is no perfect team out there, but I think some areas like defense and offensive spacing will be crucial for LA to reach the Finals again and possibly win their 14th NBA Championship!