Metta World Peace Suspension: How 7-Game Ban Impacts Lakers' NBA Title Hopes

It's official. Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace has been suspended for elbowing Oklahoma City Thunder guard James Harden on Sunday.

News of World Peace's suspension first broke on Twitter. Marc Stein of ESPN.com was one of the first to pass it along:

"

NBA announces that Metta World Peace has been suspended for seven games for striking OKC's James Harden

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) April 24, 2012"

The Lakers have one game left on their regular season schedule, so World Peace will miss that game and then the first six games of the postseason. If the Lakers don't last that long, World Peace's suspension will presumably carry over to next season.

It's a significant ban, make no mistake about that. Seven games is a lot for an elbow. This, however, was no ordinary elbow. World Peace deliberately wound up and fired his left elbow at Harden's head, and he seemed to knock Harden out cold.

This is not a "no harm, no foul" situation. According to the Associated Press, Harden has a concussion, and he still hasn't been cleared to play. It's possible that Harden will have to miss the start of the postseason.

One thing that's for sure is that the Lakers are going to miss World Peace while he's gone. Generally speaking, he didn't have a great season, but he was definitely playing his best basketball in April. He'll end the month with averages of 32.2 minutes per game, as well as 14.1 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. World Peace basically spent the season's final month looking a lot like the old Ron Artest.

With World Peace out of action, the Lakers will lean heavily on Matt Barnes and Devin Ebanks to pick up the slack. It's certainly worth noting that Barnes is dealing with a sprained right ankle, according to ESPNLosAngeles.com.

This is a bad situation for the Lakers. The small forward spot in their lineup was a problem for much of the season before World Peace finally started playing well. With him out, it's a problem again, and that will surely give rise to less efficient play on both ends of the floor.

If the season ended today, the Lakers would be looking at a matchup against the Denver Nuggets, the NBA's highest-scoring team, in the first round of the playoffs. The possibility exists that they'll have to play the Dallas Mavericks instead. The Mavericks, of course, swept the Lakers out of the postseason last year.

At full strength, the Lakers are a championship contender. Without World Peace, they're not at full strength. Whether they end up playing the Nuggets or the Mavs, a first-round upset will be in the cards.

Losing World Peace obviously isn't as bad as losing Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum or Ramon Sessions, but it's pretty bad.