Once again, the Lakers assert their dominance over a sub-par team, only to see the comfortable margin vanish into the thin, dry Santa Ana wind. I was never one to refer to our bench as the ‘bench mob,’ but that doesn’t mean I’m glad to see them struggle so much. Just as it seemed like Farmar might break out of his slump, showing some solid play on both ends of the floor in the first half – that notion painfully disappeared along with the 19-point fourth quarter lead. It is a shame that such an elite team as the Lakers should struggle against mediocre opponents, but it’s not a new development. The Lakers have historically, even during the championship years, had a tough time staying focused and putting lesser teams away without incident. There’s no doubt it’s exciting, entertaining and much more thrilling to watch a game that is decided by 3 points versus one decided by 30 – but it gives the skeptics credibility when they question whether or not the Lakers can with the championship this year.

What severely weakens the argument of the skeptics however is the Lakers’ winning percentage against elite teams. For the Lakers to have swept the season series against both Boston and Cleveland, they needed to be focused and play at the top of their game, and the games honestly weren’t even as close as they should have been for the most part. Perhaps this is due to a changing in the guard in the Eastern Conference, as well as the timing of the games within the season-long schedule. Regardless, those games demonstrated that when the Lakers click on all cylinders, they can look like the latest Formula-1 racer – just a streak of purple and gold to the basket. When they don’t, the look (and function) is more like an original Ford Pinto…present day. As we learned at the beginning of this season, the team functions the best when the defense is the priority. Even though the Lakers have been able to keep pace in the Win-Loss column since then, too many of the victories were decided by 5 points or less and in the waning moments.

This isn’t all bad news, as it definitely shows the ability to gut out victories and finish strong in the final seconds, but it is especially disturbing when that happens against teams who have no business beating the Lakers (sorry Clippers fans) in the first place. I do not mean to say that teams can’t occasionally have a bad game, and sometimes that bad game coincides with a good performance by an otherwise bad team. Those things happen during the course of a season, and that’s exactly why no team has gone 82-0. That being said, it seems to be a pattern with the Lakers, and unfortunately it’s neither a new or wanted one. As the playoff draw near, and it is decided who will have home-court advantage throughout, one thing is particularly clear…the Lakers will need to continue pulling out these types of tight victories if we want to finish at the top of the pile.