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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Pau Gasol left his exit meeting with general manager Mitch Kupchak on Tuesday with an increased sense that he may have played his last game with the Lakers.

“The future is uncertain,” Gasol said. “There’s no doubt about it. It’s a possibility that I could be gone and there’s a possibility that I could stay. I don’t know the exact percentages of it. But I’m prepared for either way.

“I understand the challenges that the franchise is facing, the decisions that they have to make in order to keep the team in the direction that they want to -- looking at the present and the future and also understanding the business side of it. So, it’s a lot going on. I wish things were a little simpler, but they’re not. So we’ll see.”

If the Lakers keep next season's payroll at about $100 million, as it was in 2012-13, the team would owe about $85 million in additional luxury-tax penalties because of the more punitive stipulations in the league’s new collective bargaining agreement.

Could Gasol and the rest of the Lakers' major pieces all be back next season? Kupchak said that possibility is “in play.”

“We haven’t ruled anything out as of now,” he said.

Yet Kupchak used similar language to admit that the opposite is also a possibility: "When you lose, everybody is in play ... whether it's Pau or anybody else, we'll look for ways to improve the team."

Gasol's contract has one year remaining at $19.3 million. From a financial perspective, the assumption was that the Lakers would try to trade his expiring deal or opt to use their one-time amnesty provision on the 12-year veteran.

“(Kupchak) couldn’t really tell me, ‘Hey, thanks for everything you’ve done, it’s more likely you’re going to be gone,’ or no, ‘Don’t worry about it, you’re going to stay here. We’re going to make it happen,’” Gasol said. “Which is to be expected. I appreciate Mitch’s honesty and everything that he’s done and the franchise has done for the last two years to keep me here and have me on the team.”

The two-year time frame Gasol was referring to started with his nearly being traded and has included a second-round exit from the playoffs last season, coach Mike Brown's being fired early this season, and a first-round sweep at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs last week.

Gasol, who turns 33 in July, said his experience with the Lakers changed significantly after the three-way trade between the Lakers, Houston Rockets and New Orleans Hornets was vetoed by NBA commissioner David Stern on the eve of the first day of training camp for the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season.

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LOS ANGELES -- Last week, before the Lakers' already nightmarish season seemingly veered completely off the tracks with Kobe Bryant's ruptured Achilles tendon, Bryant was still confident that the Lakers wouldn’t just make the playoffs but that they could win a championship.

As he sat in front of his locker following the media scrum he said, “Look at what the Kings did last year. They got into the playoffs as the eight seed and won the Stanley Cup. We’re trying to do the same thing.”

Bryant attended a number of the Los Angeles Kings' playoff games with his daughters during their magical and improbable run to the Stanley Cup last summer and didn’t understand why it couldn’t be duplicated on the basketball court this summer.

“There’s no reason we can’t do it,” Bryant said. “Everything resets in the playoffs.”

Of course, that was before Bryant was lost for the season and we found out that Steve Nash's assortment of injuries weren’t just day-to-day bad but taking-two-epidurals-just-to-practice bad. Nevertheless, Bryant’s stance doesn’t change and neither does the Lakers’ goal heading into the playoffs.

After the Lakers clinched a playoff berth that Bryant promised would happen back when the Lakers were well below .500, he tweeted, “And to think some said we wouldn’t make it.. #keepcalm #believe #playoffs now #makehistory”

He later tweeted, “Playoff promise fulfilled #ontothenext”

It doesn’t make sense that the Lakers will be entering the playoffs, without Bryant and possibly without Nash, as confident as they’ve been all season. But that’s exactly the way the Lakers were feeling after their 99-95 overtime win over the Houston Rockets on Wednesday to clinch the seventh seed and a first round match-up against the San Antonio Spurs which begins on Sunday.

They are finally moving the ball the way Mike D’Antoni envisioned they could. They are finally playing defense with the kind of intensity that Dwight Howard hoped they would. And they are playing inside-out and relying on their bigs as Pau Gasol and Howard have pleaded for since November.

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PORTLAND, Ore. -- Kobe Bryant emerged from the showers late Wednesday night and limped through the nearly empty visitors locker room at the Rose Garden, stopping briefly on his way to the training room to change so he could acknowledge Metta World Peace.

"You always backed me," Bryant said with intense appreciation.

Bryant was winding down from what can only be described as an epic performance by the 17-year veteran -- a season-high 47 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 blocks and 3 steals with only 1 turnover, a statistical line never before recorded in the league, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

And all those stats paled in comparison to Bryant's playing all 48 minutes, each and every second of the game, to help L.A. sweep a back-to-back for the first time in 16 tries this season and beat the Trail Blazers 113-106 in Portland, where the Lakers had lost 12 of their previous 14 games.

But World Peace and the rest of Bryant's teammates might not quite have his back the way he thinks they do.

After 79 games and with the Lakers on the edge of a playoff berth, holding a one-game lead over Utah for the No. 8 spot in the West with only three left to play, Bryant's teammates don't seem to be content to just feed the "All hail Kobe, the living legend" propaganda machine and ride his coattails into the playoffs.

If the season is worth saving at this point after all the trials and tribulations every player and coach in the locker room has gone through, it has to be saved as a team, the right way. If it's going to come down to Bryant playing hero ball from now until when the Lakers' season ends, there's a sense that Bryant's teammates would rather have an early summer if it means acting as the stage crew for Bryant's one-man show.

"It's bittersweet," Pau Gasol said when asked about Bryant's dominating performance against the Blazers, in which he played all 48 minutes in a non-overtime road game for the first time in his career. "Because, I think it's spectacular and it's very impressive and it's remarkable to be able to play 48 minutes and score 47 points. That's incredible. On the other hand, I'm a player that likes to see a little bit more ball movement and better balance. I've always been [like that]. That's just how I perceive this game.

"But again, he was incredible tonight. He scored a tremendous amount of points that I never scored in my life. So, like I said, it was very impressive and it's not something that you do every night, of course."

Gasol was quick to add context to his quotations, making it clear from his tone that this wasn't an issue of jealousy for the attention Bryant would receive for the feat, or a lack of appreciation for the talent Bryant has. And Gasol is certainly aware he might not be a Laker today and definitely would not be a Laker finally getting consistent post touches in Mike D'Antoni's system if it wasn't for Bryant supporting him.

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LOS ANGELES -- Dwight Howard had every reason to be upset after the Los Angeles Lakers 109-95 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday afternoon at Staples Center.

All he's supposed to do is play defense, right?

Lock up the middle of the key, protect the rim, cover up his teammates' mistakes. Well, he did that Sunday. He has been doing that ever since he looked himself in the mirror over the All-Star break and realized he needed to start delivering at that end of the floor.

The offense, the smiling, the dunks are extras. Nice when the Lakers have the time or the latitude in the standings for him to have fun with such things. But right now, with the Lakers fighting to salvage what's left of this disappointing season, the only thing that matters is defense.

Howard did that Sunday. He protected the rim, he intimidated shots, he got back on defense instead of trying to crash the offensive boards.

It was his teammates who regressed on this day. The Lakers' transition defense was horrendous again. Their rotations were slow or ineffective. And the Clippers exploited every one of their failings again and again.

"He should get frustrated when other guys are not doing what they should be doing," Lakers forward Antawn Jamison told ESPNLosAngeles.com. "You can't have one guy defensively do his job and everybody else is not doing theirs. That's been our point of emphasis the last couple games. But we backtracked [Sunday] instead of continuing to concentrate on that.

"And it shouldn't be happening now, especially with where we're at."

Who is that on?

"All of us," Jamison said. "Everyone."

Howard has a different way of showing his anger than most people are used to. He doesn't believe in bashing his teammates publicly. Instead he'll either say very little, or say just enough to clue you in on where his head is.

Sunday afternoon he was about as terse and upset as he has been at any point this season.

His answers were one or two sentences. His expression was sullen.

"We just need to play the right way," he repeated at least five times. "We know what we have to do to win."

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- There are very few people who can relate to the pain Louisville's Kevin Ware felt when he suffered a compound fracture in his leg last Sunday in the Cardinals regional final victory over Duke.

Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard is one of them.

"I broke my leg when I was 15," Howard said Friday morning. "It wasn't as severe as his, but I just know how I felt to sit out and miss important things, especially while you're young."

So Monday morning Howard picked up the phone and called Ware.

"I was just trying to make sure he was OK," said Howard, who still has two screws in his leg from the injury. "When I broke my leg, everybody thought that my career was done when I was 15. Look where it got me. I'm pretty sure it's going to push him to work even harder."

Howard said Steve Nash and Pau Gasol also got on the phone with Ware to offer encouragement.

Howard got his number through a mutual friend. The two were both raised in Atlanta and members of the same AAU basketball team, the Atlanta Celtics.

"Us Celtics stick together. That's the Atlanta Celtics," he said, catching the potential conflict with the Lakers hated rival. "We wear green, but that's for that team, the Atlanta Celtics."

If you thought that the compression shirt Dwight Howard has been wearing under his Lakers uniform these days was just another accessory like the arm sleeves and headband he wore earlier in the season or a way to accentuate his shoulder muscles for the cameras, think again.

Howard has been wearing a Posture Shirt for the last 11 games and hasn't missed any playing time because of the torn labrum in his right shoulder since putting it on.

"It’s been doing a pretty good job of keeping everything straight as far as my back and my shoulder, making sure that everything is inline," Howard said recently. "A lot of people think that it’s just a regular Polo T, but it’s not. It’s a shirt that was made strictly for posture and making sure the scapula and everything stay straight."

Howard aggravated his shoulder in the first quarter of the Lakers' 122-105 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday but was able to play the rest of the game as well as the next day against New Orleans in part because of the garment.

"Anybody who has had a torn labrum knows that it’s not something that you feel all the time," Howard said last week. "It’s not something that just bothers you while you’re walking or you’re working out. There’s moments where it feels really good and then once someone pulls you or hits you in the wrong position, that’s when sometimes everything in your arm goes numb. It just depends."

The Lakers had to receive permission from the league for Howard to wear the shirt as part of his uniform and it was approved because it is considered a medical device.

"We’ve had them in the locker room all year, but nobody is using them and I just started to wear it and actually felt a lot better," Howard said after shootaround Friday.

LOS ANGELES -- It was easy to summon the kind of emotion and passion that would have made their late, great owner Dr. Jerry Buss proud and get a win over the Boston Celtics on Wednesday.

It was easy to back up Kobe Bryant's playoff guarantee at shootaround on Friday.

But Friday night it was back to the reality of a season where nothing has come easy, as the Lakers needed all of Kobe Bryant's 40 points to eke out a close 111-107 win over the Portland Trail Blazers at Staples Center.

Bryant hit 15 of his 23 shots and all nine of his free throws to lead the Lakers to their second straight win. Dwight Howard added 19 points and 16 rebounds, even though he re-injured his right shoulder near the end of the first half.

J.J. Hickson and Nicolas Batum each had 22 points for Portland, which lost its seventh straight game.

How it happened: Once again the Lakers let a struggling young team gain confidence and shoot the lights out in the first half (51 percent).

But Bryant kept them in it with 18 points in the third quarter, and the Lakers finally pulled it out late in the fourth with several key defensive stands and four clutch free throws by Bryant over the final 12.9 seconds to preserve the win.

What it means: The Lakers have known for a while now they need to win about 70 percent of their remaining 27 games. There is very little room for error anymore. Games like this one -- against a Trail Blazer team they'd finally passed in the Western Conference standings -- are essentially must-wins if the Lakers have any hope of getting into the playoffs.

Hits: Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni revealed before Friday's game that Kobe Bryant has been dealing with a shoulder injury and said it may have been the cause of his 1-for-35 shooting on 3-pointers coming into the game.

Bryant might be in pain, but it didn't show in his performance Friday. He scored 29 of his game-high 40 points in the second half, keeping the Lakers in the game just when it seemed as if the Blazers might steal this one.

Misses: Steve Nash had a terrible shooting night, missing nine of his first 10 shots, and finishing with just four points on 2-for-11 shooting. He even missed a technical foul shot late in the fourth quarter. You know it's bad when Steve Nash is missing free throws.

Stat of the night: For once the Lakers got a lift from their second unit as Antawn Jamison (16) and Jodie Meeks (10) combined to outscore Portland's reserves, 26-14.

What's next: The Lakers head to Dallas for an early game on Sunday (10 a.m.), when Bryant can share his thoughts -- or respond as he sees fit on the court -- to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban after his comments Friday that the team should consider whether to amnesty the final year and $30 million on his contract.

HOUSTON -- Different All-Star city, same mixed messages from Dwight Howard regarding his future.

For a second straight season, Howard's commitment to his team has come under intense scrutiny during All-Star Weekend. And much like in last year's midseason showcase in Orlando, Fla., when he was still with the Magic, Howard shuffled between conflicting statements and left no indication whether he wanted to remain with the Lakers.

Howard confirmed Friday he has received assurances from Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak that he wouldn't be dealt by next week's trade deadline despite his unwillingness to commit to an extension or a new contract after the season.

Asked during Friday's All-Star media session if he'd be shocked if the Lakers traded him in the coming days, Howard said: "Well, they told me they weren't going to trade me. So, yeah, I would be surprised."

Howard spent much of his 30-minute session with reporters trying to deflect questions about his future. But ultimately, he said he wouldn't be pressured by anyone into making a decision about his future before the end of the season.

"The only thing that matters is the present, and right now," Howard said. "There's no need to talk about what's going to happen at the end of the season. No reason to go back and forth about it. I just feel like at the end of the year, I should have my opportunity to make my own decision. I shouldn't be criticized for waiting for the end of the year."

Without some kind of indication from Howard, the Lakers could risk losing the league's best center in free agency this summer without getting key assets in return. Orlando faced the same dilemma this time last season, but ultimately got Howard to waive an early termination contract clause that would have allowed him to enter free agency last summer.

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Add Rick Fox to the list of former Los Angeles Lakers who are down on Dwight Howard.

Fox, who played a key role in three Lakers championships between 2000-02, said Monday in a radio interview with Max Kellerman and Marcellus Wiley on ESPNLA 710 that he doesn't think Howard "wants to be here," or that he appreciates and respects the history of the Lakers franchise.

"I’d like to see a lot more of the actions that tell me that winning is the most important thing to him, as well as being a Laker, and I don’t get that yet," Fox said.

"Maybe in another city he can fool some people with that, but unfortunately for him, in Los Angeles, you got a legacy of great players that have shown the city what it looks like. What commitment looks like, what championship play looks like, what championship talk looks like," Fox continued.

Fox, of course, played for the Lakers while Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant often openly feuded with each other through the media and behind closed doors.

"Even when there’s been inner struggles between teammates on the Lakers to actually work it out, once they hit the floor, you still saw effort that was respectful of the uniform, respectful of all the fans out here in L.A. that fight and argue with so much pride for the Lakers organization that we aren’t getting," Fox said. "And so, for my money, I’m not seeing a guy that wants to be here."

Fox said he felt Howard was trying to prove a point with the way he's played this season.

"He feels entitled that he should be given the ball, things should be run through him, and he’s trying to prove a point, and the point is that like, 'I, in some way, should be No. 1 and I should be respected and therefore I’m giving the effort that you get because I don’t feel respected.' At the end of the day he’s had teams where he’s been the No. 1, for a number of years, and it’s led to exactly what he has: no championships."

Fox isn't the first former Lakers player to publicly criticize Howard and the Lakers in this most disappointing of seasons. Magic Johnson, O'Neal, Robert Horry and James Worthy have all been critical.

Fox said he has thus far tried to keep his feelings private, but wasn't going to censor himself when asked questions.

"I try to dance around and be politically correct, but it’s hard to do that when the people that love this team, and care about this team, are more passionate and upset about this situation than he’s been, or that other people have been. And quite frankly, there’s no room for that. There’s no room. I don’t want to turn my TV on and pay my money to watch that," Fox said.

“If Dwight ever really took a second -- and I don’t know if he’s done this -- to really look at the history of the organization and what it stands for and who has come before him and what this is about, then he would never look at it for a second at himself as bigger than this situation.

"That’s what it feels like; he wouldn’t look across the locker room at arguably one of the top players ever to play the game, ever, and he’s butting heads. Would he butt heads with Michael Jordan like this? Then he gotta go, he gotta go.”

Click here to listen to the full interview

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In a previous post, we talked about how the Lakers’ earlier trades affected the team’s first round draft pick this June. Today we’ll wrap-up the discussion by looking at this year’s second round and their picks in future years.

First a primer on the league’s rules regarding the trade of draft picks. As I cover in the CBA FAQ, teams may trade their draft picks up to seven years in the future (the Seven Year rule), and are allowed to protect picks based upon their position. For example, a first round pick that is protected 1-14 will be kept if the team ends up in the lottery and conveyed if the team makes the playoffs (receiving a pick from 15 to 30).

Pick protection may extend for multiple years, so a pick might be protected 1-14 this year, 1-10 in 2014, 1-3 in 2015, and be unprotected in 2016. Such a pick would be conveyed in the first year it falls outside the protected range. The pick must already be in the trading team’s possession at the time of the trade -- for example, a team can’t trade the lesser of any pick in the team’s possession on the date of the 2016 draft, and subsequently acquire a lower pick to send.

Pick protection must be structured in a way that ensures the Seven Year rule is not violated. For example, a team can lottery-protect its pick for up to six years, but in the seventh year must convey the pick unconditionally or send something else in lieu of the pick, such as second round picks or cash.

The Ted Stepien rule (named after the former owner of the Cavs who engineered a series of disastrous trades, including the one that resulted in James Worthy becoming a Laker) restricts teams from trading first round picks in future consecutive years. For example, if a team trades its 2013 pick it cannot trade its 2014 pick until after the 2013 draft (when the 2013 pick is no longer a future pick).

The combination of the Seven Year rule, pick protection and the Ted Stepien rule often results in draft pick trades that are extraordinarily complex, as I described in this article discussing the Clippers’ trade of the draft pick that became Kyrie Irving. As we’ll see below, many aspects of the Orlando trade for Dwight Howard depend on what happens to the picks the Lakers send to the Suns as part of the Steve Nash trade.

With that out of the way, let’s look at the Lakers’ second round picks in 2013. Here are the trades that affect the Lakers in the second round of this year’s draft:

February 18, 2009: The Lakers send Chris Mihm to the Memphis Grizzlies for a protected 2013 second-round pick.

Remember Chris Mihm? He played five seasons with the Lakers, but was injured for much of his tenure. At the time of the trade he was a shadow of his former self, averaging 2.0 points and 1.9 rebounds in 5.8 minutes per game. The trade was essentially a giveaway in order to get Mihm off the Lakers’ books, as reflected in the pick protection -- it is top-55 protected, so Memphis keeps it unless it is one of the last five picks in the draft. If the pick isn’t conveyed this year, then the Grizzlies don’t owe the Lakers anything.

December 11, 2011: The Lakers trade Lamar Odom and a 2012 second round pick to the Dallas Mavericks for future draft considerations.

In this trade the Lakers sent away Odom (who asked out after being included in the aborted Chris Paul trade) and what turned out to be the 55th pick in the 2011 draft. The pick was used to select Darius Johnson-Odom, whom the Lakers reacquired for cash in a subsequent trade. The Lakers received a first round draft pick (protected 1-20 through 2017 and unprotected in 2018) which they later sent to Houston along with Derek Fisher in exchange for Jordan Hill. Dallas also received the right to swap its 2013 second round pick with the Lakers’ second round pick.

In summary, while the Lakers won’t have a first round pick in this June’s draft, they will have the lesser of their own and Dallas’ second round pick, and also will have Memphis’ pick if it’s one of the bottom five.

Shifting our focus to future years, the following trades affect the Lakers’ draft picks:

July 11, 2012: The Lakers traded a 2013 first round pick, a 2015 first round pick, two second round picks and cash to Phoenix for Steve Nash.

In the trade, which brought Steve Nash to LA and ensured that the Lakers will not have a first round pick in this year’s draft, the team also sent a future first round pick and two second round picks to the Suns. The first round pick will be conveyed no sooner than 2015 due to the Ted Stepien rule. It is protected 1-5 in 2015, protected 1-3 in 2016 and 2017, and unprotected in 2018.

The Lakers will also give the Suns the second round pick it acquired from the Denver Nuggets in 2011 for Chukwudiebere Maduabum, which is top-40 protected in 2013 and unprotected in 2014. Finally, the Lakers own 2014 pick goes to Minnesota, after the Suns subsequently traded it to the Timberwolves.

August 10, 2012: In a four-team trade, the Lakers acquired Dwight Howard, Chris Duhon and Earl Clark from Orlando, sending out Andrew Bynum, Christian Eyenga, Josh McRoberts, a future first round pick and a future second round pick.

The first round pick can be conveyed no sooner than 2017, and no sooner than two years following the conveyance of the pick to Phoenix due to the Ted Stepien rule. It is also protected 1-4 in 2017 and 2018, and unprotected in 2019.

Since the Phoenix pick may not be conveyed until 2018, and the Lakers could not trade their 2020 pick due to the Seven Year rule, the first round pick to Orlando is replaced with second round picks in 2017 and 2018 if Phoenix doesn’t get its pick by 2017.

The second round pick is protected top-40 in 2015. If the Lakers keep this pick then they no longer owe the Magic a second round pick.

Putting it all together, the Lakers’ future draft obligations read as follows:

*2013: Whatever first round pick the Lakers end up with will go to Phoenix. It will have the lesser of its own and Dallas’ second round picks, and will have Memphis’ second round pick if it falls 56-60.

*2014: The Lakers will have their own first round pick, but will not have a second round pick.

*2015: The Lakers will have their own first round pick if it is in the top five, otherwise it will go to Phoenix. The Lakers will keep their second round pick if it’s 31-40, otherwise it goes to Orlando.

*2016: The Lakers will have their own first round pick if they sent their 2015 pick to Phoenix or the pick is 1-5, otherwise it goes to Phoenix. They have their own second round pick.

*2017: This pick goes to Phoenix if the Lakers haven’t already sent a pick to the Suns and it’s not in the top three. If they sent a pick to Phoenix in 2015 then this pick goes to Orlando if it’s not in the top five -- otherwise they keep it. If the Lakers don’t send a first round pick to Phoenix by 2017 then Orlando gets the Lakers’ 2017 second round pick; otherwise the Lakers keep it.

*2018: If the Lakers haven’t yet given Phoenix a first round pick then the Suns get it unconditionally. If the Lakers sent a first round pick to Phoenix by 2016, haven’t yet sent a pick to Orlando, and the pick is not in the top five, then Orlando gets it, otherwise the Lakers keep it. If the Lakers don’t send a first round pick to Phoenix by 2017 then Orlando gets the Lakers’ 2018 second round pick, otherwise the Lakers keep it.

*2019: If the Lakers sent a first round pick to Phoenix by 2017 and Orlando has not received a first round pick then Orlando gets their first round pick, otherwise the Lakers keep it. The Lakers have their own second round pick.

LOS ANGELES – Despite starting 2013 with a loss and a below-500 record, Kobe Bryant still expects the Los Angeles Lakers to make the playoffs and compete for a championship.

“I don’t think there’s a doubt about that,” Bryant told Colin Cowherd Wednesday on ESPN Radio when asked if the Lakers were built for the playoffs. “The problem is we’ve dug ourselves such a deep hole we got to do a lot of fighting just to catch up and get in that conversation. We firmly believe it’s going to happen but we have to do a lot of fighting just to get there.”

The Lakers are currently 9.5 games behind the Los Angeles Clippers in the Pacific Division and are the tenth place team in the Western Conference, 1.5 games behind the Portland Trailblazers for the eighth and final playoff seed. The Lakers can cut into that deficit on Friday night when they play the Clippers at Staples Center.

“It’s very deep, we’re very concerned but we’ve been playing well lately,” Bryant said of his concern for the Lakers right now. “The last eight games we’ve been playing pretty well but the hole we dug ourselves in the start is very deep so every loss now cuts a little deeper than it should. So we have to keep focused on how we’ve been playing lately and just continuing to get better from that.”

The one thing Bryant is not concerned about is possible dysfunction within the team about Pau Gasol’s role, Dwight Howard’s health, Mike D’Antoni’s rotation or anything else. Bryant actually thinks a little confrontation could be good for the team.

“I’ve been on teams where we’ve confronted each with Phil (Jackson) and Shaq (O’Neal) and we had altercations and yelled at each other and then you figure things out,” Bryant said. “I don’t want to be on a type of team where you feel like you’re afraid of confrontation or afraid of a little dysfunction because without having those things you really cannot get on the same page. You just walk around and everybody is comfortable being whatever and whispering about what they should be doing and what they want to be doing instead of having confrontations and ironing things out.”

Listen to full interview here.

LOS ANGELES -- Christmas Day hasn't always been kind to the Los Angeles Lakers. Even as they were winning five championships over the past 14 years, the Lakers were 5-9 on Dec. 25.

Even Kobe Bryant, who always expects to win, had almost come to expect a loss shortly after opening presents with his family.

Things would be different this time around. After doing their fair share of losing before Christmas, the Lakers were ready to turn around their season on Dec. 25 this season. With Steve Nash and Pau Gasol back in the lineup, the Lakers not only beat the New York Knicks 100-94 but also extended their winning streak to five games. The Lakers are now 14-14 and back at .500 for the first time since Mike D'Antoni's first loss as Lakers coach on Nov. 21. They are also just two games behind the No. 6 playoff seed in the Western Conference. In other words, the reports of the Lakers' demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Metta World Peace’s role

Since D'Antoni became the coach of the Lakers, no player has had a more wide-ranging role than Metta World Peace. Whether it's starting, coming off the bench, being a lockdown defender or a spot-up shooter, D'Antoni has tinkered with World Peace's role. Considering some players have completely fallen out of the rotation (i.e., Antawn Jamison), it's actually not the worst thing in the world for him. D'Antoni knows the Lakers need a spark off the bench, and he believes World Peace can be that spark. Against the Knicks, World Peace provided an early spark, scoring 16 points in the second quarter on 4-of-4 shooting, and hitting all three of his attempts from 3-point range. D'Antoni actually went to World Peace quicker than he had anticipated since Darius Morris, who was guarding Carmelo Anthony, was getting destroyed. World Peace was slightly more successful but was just as important on the offensive end, finishing with 20 points and seven rebounds, before he fouled out.

Steve Nash factor

Everyone on the Lakers kept preaching patience while the team struggled and lost games. Players and coaches said that when Nash returned to the lineup, all the pieces to the puzzle would finally fit. He was the quarterback of an offense that had been run without a quarterback. It hasn't taken long to see how much of a difference Nash can make. Nash finished the game with 16 points and 11 assists and was a coach on the floor, constantly talking to Dwight Howard and Gasol about their place on the court and on pick-and-rolls. Everything the Lakers do flows better when Nash is on the court. He not only finds players open and gets them the ball quickly in transition, but his ability to protect the ball also has meant fewer turnovers and fewer transition buckets for the opposition. While Nash might not be the best defender, the fact that the Lakers no longer have to run back on defense as much after a turnover is critical.

Gasol and Howard co-existing

The biggest challenge for D’Antoni is getting Howard and Gasol to co-exist on the court. His offense doesn't naturally lend itself to a pair of 7-footers who like the ball in the post, but he will have to find a way to make it work if the Lakers are to turn around their season and be championship contenders. One of his solutions is playing Howard and Gasol separately during the game, which he did against the Knicks before finishing the game with both players on the court. Howard finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while Gasol finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. Gasol's running dunk at the end of the game not only sealed the win for the Lakers but also may be a turning point for both Gasol and the team. Both Howard and Gasol contend that they can play together and that they are getting more comfortable in their roles. That's a good thing, because the Lakers are simply not as good when one of them is on the bench.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Watching Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson employ his game strategy against Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard on Saturday could leave Lakers fans wanting to scream, "Momma, there goes that Hack-a-Howard," to borrow a phrase from Jackson's announcing days.

Jackson, who helped Lakers center Dwight Howard set an all-time single game NBA record for free-throw attempts last season when he paraded him to the foul line and Howard went 21-for-39 en route to 43 points in an Orlando Magic win over the Warriors, said he'll gladly do it all over again.

"If there's anybody in this league that does not shoot free throws at a high level, if they’re on the floor, I, as a coach, will every single time entertain fouling," Jackson told ESPNLA's 710 Radio's "L.A. Now" show with Mark Willard and Mychal Thompson on Friday. "That's just the right move to make as a coach. Whether it's Dwight Howard, DeAndre Jordan, it doesn't matter whoever it is. If that opportunity presents itself, I'm going to entertain it and more than likely do it. Now, if you make the shots, it will make me adjust, but I'm going with what the data says in front of me."

The data would actually suggest that the move backfired on Jackson.
According to SB Nation's Tom Ziller, Howard actually scored at a higher rate per possession that game when he was being intentionally fouled than when he was simply defended and allowed to operate offensively without being granted an automatic whistle.

Howard, who saw two late Lakers leads slip away in the fourth quarter this season when Orlando and Houston employed the Hack-a-Howard strategy, welcomed the challenge again.

"That's fine with me, that's fine," Howard said. "I've been really working on my free throws so if it happens, I'll be ready and make him pay."

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That the Los Angeles Lakers are struggling isn't surprising. Everyone understood coming in they had a top-heavy roster built around stars, supplemented by the type of bench players who require talent around them to be effective. With Steve Nash and Pau Gasol in street clothes, the starting lineup is substantially weaker and a bench most hoped could be average (a major improvement over last season's awful) is stretched thinner than Keon Clark's calf muscles.

Bottom line, the Lakers don't currently have enough good players to beat good teams.

But there is struggling, and then there is this.

Right now, the Lakers are a legitimately bad team, and as a result, on top of their problems with personnel, they have a problem with belief. There is zero confidence in what they're doing offensively. Kobe Bryant doesn't fully believe in the guys around him (with legitimate cause) and the other guys don't believe in what they're doing. They're turning the ball over, dribbling to places they shouldn't, and gripping the wheel too tightly in a system built on free-flowing movement and energy. Bad offense leads to bad defense, and certainly the Lakers, who were about 0.1 seconds from allowing 71 points in the first half Thursday night -- upon further review, Raymond Felton's buzzer-beating 3-pointer didn't quite beat the buzzer -- have a significant problem on that side of things.

There is no continuity, no cohesion, no consistency in the Lakers' effort. Dwight Howard doesn't believe the guys behind him have his back (with legitimate cause). As you might suspect with a team surrendering points by the bushel, the Lakers do a lot of pointing. At one another. There are good moments, but nothing close to 48 minutes of sustained competence. Instead, they tend to bury themselves early and then work for a miracle.

As a result, the Lakers are facing their most significant problem: Math.

Over the past three full NBA seasons, the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference has averaged 48 wins. The Lakers, now 9-14 following Thursday's 116-107 fraternity-style paddling at the hands of the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, would have to go 39-20 to get there. That's a .661 winning percentage, the equivalent of a 54-win pace over a full season. Doable -- at least in theory -- for the roster assembled in the offseason, except nobody has any real idea of when that team will actually take the court, and the current group has shown nothing but the ability to lose to any team on any night. Sure, the Lakers made a late push against the Knicks, just as they did last week in Oklahoma City. But spotting teams huge leads and hoping they get bored (or that the star player turns an ankle) before staging a comeback isn't exactly sound strategy.

Who is willing to call Friday's game in Washington a sure win? I'm certainly not.

The rest of the conference won't wait around for the Lakers. Dallas will eventually get Dirk Nowitzki back. Minnesota gets Ricky Rubio back, maybe as soon as this weekend. The Wolves were strong last season with Rubio and Kevin Love available. Denver ought to get better, and so on. Even stipulating the Lakers will look like the team we expected once Nash and Gasol return (and there are reasons to believe they'll still have some issues), they've reached a point where the games in between are critical. Not for winning the conference (ha!) or pushing into the top four on the playoff ladder, but to avoid having to play .700 or even .750 ball just to make the playoffs. Somehow, someway, the Lakers need to win games with the guys available to them or they risk making their quality of play with Nash and Gasol a moot point.

I still believe they'll get in and I know we're not even to Christmas yet, but the threat is very real. Already the Lakers have taken giant bites out of their season's allotment of margin for error, particularly when considering this was supposed to be the easy portion of the 2012-2013 schedule. Nash said Friday he hopes to begin practicing next week, which could mean a return to the lineup around Christmas, barring any setbacks. But the Lakers have to assume he won't be back for a while, and start producing Friday in against the Wizards and in every game until he (and Gasol) are back.

As someone expressed to us via Twitter after the Lakers paid homage to the Cuyahoga River fire with their self-immolation act Tuesday in Cleveland, Nash is seen as the guy who can right the ship, and get the Lakers back on course. But even accepting this (no longer completely) conventional wisdom, there's only so much the two-time MVP can do if the boat is halfway to the ocean floor when he returns.

Without question, water is currently flowing in faster than the Lakers can bail.

The Lakers may be short on wins relative to expectations, but they've certainly not disappointed in the "things to talk about" category. This week has been no exception. Pau Gasol's future in Los Angeles is again being called into question, a future made a little tougher to predict thanks to the knee tendinitis putting him on the shelf for a still unknown stretch of time. Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant got into it during the first half of Wednesday's win over the Hornets in New Orleans. Is it a sign of an impending starpocalypse?

And, of course, Bryant became only the fifth player in league history to crack 30,000 points over his career. A remarkable achievement.

These are the three big issues on the docket in the newest edition of the Kamenetzky Brothers Lakers PodKast. Click on the module below to hear the show.