ESPN

On March 18 of last season, Darius Morris didn’t get into the game until the last three minutes of the Los Angeles Lakers’ blowout loss to the Phoenix Suns. Coach Mike D’Antoni stuck to a seven-man rotation on the second night of a back-to-back, and Morris didn’t figure into his plans.

Two days before that, Andrew Goudelock was playing for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers and picking apart the Lakers’ D-League affiliate, the L.A. D-Fenders, with 33 points and 12 assists in a 15-point win.

Five weeks later, Morris and Goudelock made up the Lakers’ starting backcourt for Game 3 of their first-round playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs. They put up an admirable effort -- Goudelock finished with 20 points and three steals, Morris had 24 points and six assists -- but the Spurs still embarrassed the Lakers, winning by 31 points on the Lakers' home floor.

The Lakers started the season with a Hall of Fame-bound backcourt of Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash, backed up by a D’Antoni favorite in Steve Blake and a pure, space-the-floor shooter in Jodie Meeks.

They ended it with two former second-round picks playing close to 40 minutes apiece in a playoff game.

Even with the rash of injuries the Lakers experienced last season -- trainer Gary Vitti said it was the worst string of bad luck he’s seen in his 20-plus years with the team -- the Lakers clearly had to address the guard position in the offseason.

Part of that process was upgrading from Morris (who remains an unsigned free agent after L.A. cut ties with him) and Goudelock (who signed a one-year deal to play in Russia after shining with Chicago’s summer league team).

Here’s a look at how the Lakers’ depth chart at guard should shake out next season:

1. Kobe Bryant

Even as a 35-year-old coming off of Achilles surgery and entering his 18th season in the league, Bryant is still the sun the Lakers' planet revolves around. He’ll be looked to to jump-start the Lakers' offense, whether in scorer or facilitator mode (hopefully more of the latter), and instill the belief that L.A. can actually accomplish something in 2013-14 outside of jockeying for draft lottery status. While Bryant will still surely play more than any other guard in the Lakers' lineup next season (when he's ready to return from his injury), it will be up to D’Antoni to manage his minutes better than last season. Bryant played 38.6 minutes per game in 2012-13, including an average of 45.6 minutes in his final seven games leading up to the injury. Just like the sun sets, Bryant and D’Antoni will have to figure out a way to pace themselves, perhaps by borrowing a page out of Gregg Popovich’s book and sitting Bryant on the second night of back-to-backs like the Spurs often do with Tim Duncan.

2. Steve Nash

Not only is Nash older than just about every player in the league -- he’ll turn 40 during the season -- he’s older than some of the top executives, as the Denver Nuggets hired 36-year-old Tim Connelly to be their general manager in the offseason and the Suns, Nash’s former team, brought on 33-year-old Ryan McDonough as their GM. Nash has already proved to be an ageless wonder, however, and as long as he can put his hip and groin injuries behind him, he will be relied upon to run D’Antoni’s offense the way the two hoped could have happened last season. Just like Bryant, however, there should be a minute cap for Nash. He averaged 32.5 minutes per game last season with only Blake providing consistent relief. The addition of Jordan Farmar, who at 26 is nearly a decade and a half Nash’s junior, will make it easier to cut into those minutes.

3. Jordan Farmar

Once upon a time, Farmar left a Lakers team that had won back-to-back championships because he didn’t want to continue to play behind an aging point guard in Derek Fisher. This time around, Farmar is joining a Lakers team that suffered back-to-back early exits in order to -- wait for it -- back up an aging point guard. Despite that, it seems like a natural fit for Farmar to return to the Lakers and play in a system that is better suited to his dribble-drive game than Phil Jackson’s triangle offense ever was. He will play both the 1 and the 2 at times and could really show his value if Bryant misses any portion of the season while still in recovery.

4. Steve Blake

Blake is the incumbent here, but it will be difficult for him to maintain his primary backup spot if Farmar comes in and performs to the best of his ability. The good news for Blake is there will always be time for him and his brand of hard-nosed, on-ball defense, and if D’Antoni gives Bryant and/or Nash the second night of back-to-backs off, there could be major minutes to be had. Plus, D’Antoni told ESPN 710 radio in Los Angeles that he plans to play an 11-man rotation. If the coach follows through with that plan, there will certainly be a role available for Blake.

5. Nick Young

Young has played shooting guard for the majority of his six-year career, but the Lakers think he’s capable of playing small forward. “Nick’s size, ability to create his own shot and athleticism make him a versatile player who will give our lineup multiple looks on the floor,” GM Mitch Kupchak said in the news release announcing Young’s signing mere minutes before the team used the amnesty clause to waive Metta World Peace. So, while Young will inevitably get some time at guard, he’ll more than likely be the team’s starting 3 when the season opens up.

6. Jodie Meeks

Meeks’ role will likely be hit-or-miss -- he’ll stay in when he’s hitting his shots and sit when he’s missing them. Like Blake having his value challenged by the addition of Farmar, Meeks will have to fight against becoming redundant with the addition of Young.

7. Xavier Henry

Henry, a former lottery pick by New Orleans in 2010, has the right frame at 6-foot-6 to play swingman, but hasn’t gotten the rest of his game together enough to stick in the league yet. Henry has a training camp invite with no guaranteed money, according to a league source, so his first priority is making the team, let alone cracking the rotation.

Michael Beasley was waived by the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, putting the talented, yet troubled, 6-10, 235-pound former No. 2 pick on the market.

With the Los Angeles Lakers lacking a proven small forward on their roster after using the amnesty clause on Metta World Peace, it's only natural to wonder if Beasley might be a good fit in purple and gold.

Here are four questions to consider before that can happen:

1. What is the waiver process for Beasley?

Beasley was owed $6 million by Phoenix in 2013-14 and $6.25 million in 2014-15, but only $3 million of his '14-15 deal was guaranteed. Beasley agreed to a $7 million buyout with the Suns, according to Sports 620 KTAR in Phoenix. If any team out there chooses to claim the remaining $7 million on his contract, they'll retain Beasley's rights. That's unlikely to happen.

The way this usually works is a player clears the 48-hour waiver process and then the bids come in, with teams free to use their mid-level, mini mid-level or biannual exception to try to entice Beasley to come on board. The Lakers do not have any of those exceptions available to them. They used their entire mini mid-level exception on Chris Kaman and do not qualify for the biannual exception because of their luxury tax situation, so all they could offer Beasley is a veteran's minimum deal worth approximately $1 million.

There is a chance that a team like Philadelphia, which has not yet met the minimum salary requirement for the 2013-14 season could take on his full salary to meet that basement level, but Philly could just wait to sign other free agents to account for the approximately $10 million in salary it has to acquire without bringing in someone like Beasley with his off-court background into its young, impressionable locker room.

2. Will the Lakers be interested in Beasley?

As one source familiar with the Lakers thinking said, "There's a reason why Phoenix cut him." Even though Beasley is just 24 years old and has career averages of 14.1 points and 5.2 rebounds in just 26.4 minutes per game, it was his arrest on suspicion of marijuana possession in August that seemed to be what ultimately pushed Phoenix to go in another direction.

However, Beasley had off-court issues before this summer and that didn't stop the Lakers from pushing hard to get him in the 2011-12 season. Twice that season, the Lakers thought it had deals in place to acquire the lefty forward from Minnesota, and twice those deals fell through, the second time just seven minutes removed from the trade deadline.

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak has shown in recent seasons that once a player catches his interest, that impression doesn't fade easily. Kupchak said that the Lakers had designs on acquiring Steve Blake for years stemming from an great pre-draft workout with the team in 2003. They finally got Blake in 2011. The same goes for Nick Young. Kupchak came close to getting Young for years before having it all come together this summer.

3. Should the Lakers want Beasley?

In a word, yes. Even though the team made some savvy pick-ups with potential in Young, Wes Johnson and Elias Harris to try to fill the void at small forward left by World Peace, none of them are proven players at that position. And yes, Kobe Bryant is just about as good at playing the three as he is at the two at this stage of his career with all the post moves he's developed, but Bryant's health for this season is still very much in question.

Getting Beasley at the minimum for 2013-14 would not only allow the team to keep the financial flexibility for next summer that it so covets, but it would give Mike D'Antoni another offensive weapon to work with. This is a guy who has a career high of 42 points, a guy who once put up 22 points and 15 rebounds in a playoff game, a guy who has a 34.5 percent career mark from 3, but has shot 36.6 percent or better from deep in three out of his five career seasons.

Don't discount the appeal of Beasley's ability to shoot it, either. The Lakers drafted Ryan Kelly in the second round primarily for his ability to stretch the floor with his long-range accuracy, but the team has been discouraged by the rookie's progress during the summer, according to multiple league sources. The Lakers doubt that Kelly, who missed summer league while recovering from multiple foot procedures, will be ready for the start of training camp.

Beasley could fill out a couple check marks of what the Lakers are looking for.

4. Should Beasley want the Lakers?

This answer isn't as straight forward. While Beasley has already made approximately $25.9 million in his time in the NBA, according to BasketballReference.com, he did have to agree to give up a guaranteed $2 million over two years in the Phoenix buyout. He could make that money back and then some by signing with a team that offers him the mini mid-level exception of $3.2 million. If he signs with the Lakers for the minimum, he loses $1 million. That might seem insignificant when you've already made $26 million, but $1 million is $1 million, especially for a player whose future in the league is far from certain.

So, financially maybe the Lakers aren't the best fit for Beasley.

However, style of play wise, L.A. could be perfect for him. Not only are D'Antoni's open-court sets suited for his game, but Beasley had his best season as a professional while coached by Lakers assistant Kurt Rambis when he was the head coach in Minnesota in 2010-11.

Not only that, but the Lakers have had success in recent seasons in salvaging guys' careers who were rich in talent, but poor in opportunity (think Shannon Brown, Trevor Ariza, Jordan Hill, Earl Clark).

And the opportunity should be plentiful in L.A. at small forward.

LOS ANGELES – Nick Young wasn’t very happy when he heard where the Los Angeles Lakers were ranked in ESPN’s Summer Forecast.

“We’re ranked 12th in the league?” he said, slightly puzzled.

Well, not exactly, more like 12th in the West, right behind the New Orleans Pelicans to be exact.

“What? No! Out of teams in the West?” he said, now more upset than puzzled.

“That’s very disappointing,” Young said. “I’m upset just hearing that right now. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see what happens this season. We’re going to be ranked higher than that by the end of the season.”

Young, who grew up in Los Angeles and played at Cleveland High in Reseda, Calif. and at USC, is no stranger to having people doubt him but didn’t think that would be the case after joining Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash with the Lakers.

“I’ve been the underdog for so long,” Young said. “I’m upset and ready for the season. How are you going to be ranked that low with Kobe and Pau and Nash? There’s always going to be haters and we just have to keep proving them wrong.”

As much as Young is looking forward to playing alongside three future hall of fame players this season, he’s just as excited about re-uniting with his longtime friend Jordan Farmar. Farmar, who went to Taft High in Woodland Hills, Calif., tried to recruit his travel-ball teammate to UCLA with him in 2004 but was unsuccessful. The two have finally connected nearly a decade later back home with their favorite NBA team growing up.

“I talked to Jordan Farmar about that,” Young said. “We talked about it on the phone. We sat down and talked and then texted and called. This was a chance for us to really do something special and make that name we’ve wanted to make in the league. I grew up being a big-time Kobe fan and before him it was Nick Van Exel and Eddie Jones and before that that it was Magic and Kareem. I grew up with the Forum. I’m from L.A. To play for the Lakers after growing up and watching them is amazing.”

Both Young and Farmar took less money to play for the Lakers this season but it was an easy choice after they talked to each other. Although Young had to sacrifice slightly more as Farmar claimed the No. 1 jersey they both wanted, while Young settled for No. 0.

“It was an easy decision,” Young said. “Who doesn’t want to play for the Lakers? Of course, I had to sit down and talk to my family and talk to my agent but I really felt like this was the best opportunity for me. Even though I had more money other places, I just felt like the chance to play in the spotlight and back home was too good to pass up.”

Young spoke to ESPNLA.com while at a "Call of Duty: Ghosts" multiplayer reveal event at L.A. Live, where he played the game with Anthony Bennett and DeAndre Jordan against U.S. Marines in attendance.

At the event Young, who played for the Clippers two seasons ago, was already talking about the Lakers and Clippers’ opening night game on Oct. 29 with Jordan.

“I told D.J. to be ready opening night,” Young said. “We just got to come out and play. I know that pride factor is going to kick in. We got the talent, we got the players, we just got to really show it.”

Can an NBA team lose two players who had been honored as the league's top defenders and, in the process, become a better defensive unit?

That’s what the Los Angeles Lakers are trying to find out.

Gone is their best rim protector in Dwight Howard, off to Houston. Gone, too, is their best perimeter stopper in Metta World Peace, off to New York.

Now the Lakers will find out if less is more.

Not that L.A.’s defense was any good with the services of the three-time defensive player of the year in Howard and one-time DPOY winner in World Peace, anyway. The Lakers were tied with Brooklyn for 18th in the league in defensive efficiency, allowing opponents to score 103.6 points per 100 possessions. Even with Howard patrolling the paint, L.A. ranked 22nd in the league in opponents’ field goal percentage inside of five feet, according to NBA.com Stats Cube (59.8 percent), and even with World Peace’s notoriously quick left hand, the Lakers were 26th in steals per game, generating just 7.0 a night.

“Their defense never really gave them a chance to win,” newly hired Lakers assistant coach Kurt Rambis told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “It was very erratic at best. In a lot of ways, when you bring in a lot of players from a lot of different systems, it takes awhile to get everybody connected and on the same page, how you have to defend a myriad of offensive NBA sets and you have to defend talented offensive people, it takes all five guys. They’ve got to be connected, and they’ve got to make the correct decisions at the correct time, and for the Lakers last year, it was clear that they just never really got connected on that end of the floor.

“You could see throughout most of their games, guys would turn their palms up to the sky, and it was like, ‘Is that my responsibility? Is that your responsibility? Who was supposed to do what?’ So, we’ve got to do a much better job of getting them so they can cover each others’ backs at that end of the floor.”

The reason that Rambis is back with the Lakers is not only because the team lost its two most talented defenders in Howard and World Peace, but because it lost its two most defensive-minded assistant coaches in Chuck Person, whose contract was not renewed, and Steve Clifford, who became the head coach in Charlotte.

Rambis, who assumed a defensive coordinator-type role in the final two seasons of his last run with the Lakers when Phil Jackson was head coach, said that Mike D’Antoni isn’t giving him the same label.

“(D’Antoni) said that all assistant coaches will be involved in all areas in our initial conversation,” Rambis explained. “Not that we have etched everything in stone, but to come back as a defensive coordinator, you can talk to Mike about whether there’s going to be any sort of designation on that. By my understanding, there isn’t going to be, but he just kind of wants all of the gaps to be covered so everybody is responsible for working with players and being involved in practices and being involved with games. But to have myself associated with the defense, that means that area is going to be covered.”

The Lakers have had a precipitous decline on the defensive end. After they held the Boston Celtics to just 79 points on 40.8 percent shooting in their Game 7 win in the 2010 Finals, their last three playoff appearances have ended in ugly fashion. First the Dallas Mavericks shot a blistering 46.2 percent on 3-pointers during a four-game sweep in 2011, amid Andrew Bynum decrying the team’s “trust issues” on the defensive end. Then the Oklahoma City Thunder scored 100 or more in three of their four wins against L.A. in their 2012 second-round series. Finally, in last season's first-round sweep by San Antonio, the Spurs shot a combined 53.0 percent from the floor in Games 2-4 after figuring out the Lakers' D that held them to just 37.6 percent shooting in Game 1 of the series.

“They never got connected defensively,” Rambis said of the 2012-13 season.

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Ironically, it was Phil Jackson who may have best summed up Mike D’Antoni’s first season as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

“Mike hasn’t had a chance in L.A., he really hasn’t,” Jackson said back in May while appearing as a guest on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," after audience members booed the mention of D'Antoni's name.

And that was before Dwight Howard left for Houston, making it clear on his way out the door that he would have preferred Jackson over D’Antoni as the Lakers' head coach.

D’Antoni has been maligned by some Lakers faithful for the team's disappointing 2012-13 season, and perceived by many to be at least partially responsible for Howard's departure. And although he replaced Mike Brown five games into last season, plenty of Lakers fans feel he actually replaced Jackson, since the 11-time champion had interviewed for the job before D’Antoni did back in November, and seemed to have landed it until a notorious late-night call from Lakers management informed him otherwise.

But grumbling aside, D'Antoni remains in the job, and has the backing of the front office heading into the 2013-14 season. Executive vice president Jim Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak believe that the coach’s flexibility in the second half of last season was a key factor in the team finishing 28-12 and want to give him a full training camp and a healthy roster in 2013-14 in order to show what he can do.

Several times last season, D’Antoni paraphrased Winston Churchill in describing his approach to the Lakers' ups and downs, “When you're going through hell, you put your head down and keep going, and that's what we're going to do.”

The pressure of a $100 million payroll that was built to be a contender and was struggling just to play .500 ball was persistent and intense. The Lakers are hoping that Howard’s departure will perhaps act as a sort of pressure release valve heading into the upcoming season.

“Expectations should be lower and I think that will ease the pressure on him,” said a source familiar with the Lakers front office’s thinking.

“I think every year's fun,” D’Antoni recently told Fox Sports when asked how grateful he was to have a traditional offseason to prepare his team. “Coaching's fun, so I'm not complaining the other way, but this is a lot better. Some of the best times are training camp and getting your ideas in how you'd like them.”

None of Churchill's grim determination there.

Late last season D’Antoni told ESPNLosAngeles.com, “We're not running anything that I would normally run,” but the moves the Lakers have made since Howard left for Houston have been more in step with the system for which D’Antoni is known.

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Whenever he’s been asked about the Los Angeles Lakers’ biggest needs this offseason, Kobe Bryant has repeated the same two buzzwords: length and athleticism.

As their three best players -- Bryant, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash -- age, logic dictates that the Lakers’ rotation could use an extra dose of spryness. As last season showed, the Lakers were simply too old and unathletic to compete for anything more than a bottom playoff seed despite possessing as much top-heavy talent as most contenders.

Even with Dwight Howard and Earl Clark bolting in free agency, the Lakers’ core frontline of Gasol, Jordan Hill and new offseason signee Chris Kaman is formidable. The same, however, could not be said about the Lakers’ perimeter crop until a few signings last week.

The additions of Nick Young, Jordan Farmar and Wesley Johnson pale in comparison to some of the franchise-altering moves of other Western conference teams, but that misses the point. The trio is a solid upgrade over the Lakers’ perimeter options last season, which should be cause for optimism given L.A.’s limited cap space and means to improve.

None of the backcourt signings make the Lakers a contender, let alone a lock for the playoffs, but each player adds a skill or two that the Lakers’ role players lacked. Plus, since all three are on veteran’s minimum contracts, there is little risk involved from the Lakers’ side. If anything, the Lakers got great value given the reasonable likelihood that each player outperforms his price tag.

Here’s a look at each of the Lakers’ perimeter pickups and how they fit with the roster:

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- In the week since Dwight Howard announced his decision to go to the Houston Rockets, players and front-office members of the Los Angeles Lakers have been treading pretty lightly on the subject.

General manager Mitch Kupchak released a statement wishing Howard luck. Even Kobe Bryant said, "I'm happy for him."

Leave it to L.A. native and newly-minted Laker Nick Young to say what everybody seemed to be thinking at his introductory news conference on Friday.

"That was the first time I've ever seen anybody leave L.A., wanting to leave L.A., and I'm from here so I haven't seen that," said the 28-year-old Young, who not only played high school ball at Reseda Cleveland but also played his college basketball at USC. "But Dwight had to do what he had to do."

Young jumped at the chance to return to the place where Howard fled.

"I just felt like I needed this opportunity," Young said. "Over the past couple of years, I feel like I've been getting disrespected a little bit out there and I feel with this stage the Lakers set, with the opportunity for playing time here, I can get my name back out there and get the respect I feel I deserve. I did this for myself, really."

The disrespect Young was referring to occurred in Philadelphia last season. The 76ers signed him to a one-year, $6 million deal, and he languished on the bench, picking up DNP-CDs with regularity. A season before that, he was hitting big shots in the playoffs for the Los Angeles Clippers. In 2010-11, he was averaging a career-high 17.4 points per game for the Washington Wizards.

Coming to Los Angeles was about getting back on track.

"We think there's a lot of playing time here for him if he works hard and earns it," Kupchak said. "We see him playing at the small forward and the guard position. He's very gifted athletically. We know he can score. We've been talking about improving the other parts of his game, which I think he's committed to working on to becoming a complete player."

While the Lakers couldn't offer Young much in terms of salary -- he signed a one-year deal for the veteran's minimum, worth about $1.2 million -- what they could offer was the precious commodity of a chance to play major minutes and a shot at the future.

Even though the Lakers have let it be known they want to maintain as much cap flexibility for the summer of 2014 as possible to pursue max-level free agents, Young is seen as a piece that could stick around once those marquee players are added.

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Nick Young, one of the newest members of the Los Angeles Lakers, joined Max Kellerman and Marcellus Wiley on ESPNLA 710 on Friday afternoon to talk about playing for his favorite team growing up and being back in LA. Young attended USC and Reseda Cleveland High.

To hear the full interview, click this link.

There's a lot on the line Wednesday when the Lakers "visit" the Clippers (7:30, ESPN), starting with positioning in the Pacific Division. The Lakers will wake up Thursday in first place no matter the result-- they're 1.5 games up heading in -- but a victory for the LAC would pull them even with the Lakers in the loss column, and more importantly the winner takes the season series 2-1, earning what could be a very useful tiebreaker.

Andrew Bynum, absent from Tuesday's win over New Jersey, will obviously play a huge role in the outcome. Defensively, he provides a major deterrent/shot altering deterrant in the lane for Chris Paul, a guy who (for those new to the game) makes his way to the paint with regularity. At the other end, not only is Bynum a key weapon for the Lakers as a source of points in the post and a means of drawing double teams, but his presence guarantees Blake Griffin has to play defense, matched up against Pau Gasol.

Unburdened from responsibility on his side of the floor, Griffin is far freer to load up on highlight dunks and soaring rebounds.

The Lakers are riding what might be the most unsatisfying three game win streak in sports history. With only 12 games left before the playoffs, they don't have a lot of time to coalesce, and their apparent allergy to comfortable leads obviously won't play well in the postseason. The LAC, meanwhile, have quietly posted a six game win streak, their longest as a franchise since March of '92 (an NBA record for largest gap between five win streaks), including a thumping of Dallas Monday night. Before, though, they'd lost 12 of 19, and still have some work to do convincing observers they're truly on track.

Add in a quickly developing, very chippy rivalry and, to paraphrase Rasheed Wallace, both teams have good reason to play hard.

To get a better feel for Wednesday's battle royale, we sat down with Kevin Arnovitz and Jordan Heimer, hosts of ESPNLA's The Clipper Podcast (among other things) for an audio preview. Click here to listen. To serve the more literary crowd, Arnovitz was nice enough to answer a few questions...

1. Maybe 10 days ago, we were all speculating about Vinny Del Negro's job security. Now the Clips have won six straight. What has changed?

"The Clippers had a relatively easy homestand against of slew of really, really bad road teams. But in the process, they've started to figure out some stuff defensively. On top of that, they've gotten some otherworldly shooting performances from all over the roster. The average NBA team puts up an effective field goal percentage of 48.6 percent. The Clippers over their six-game winning streak? 54, 55, 54, 57, 61, 54."

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It's the rubber match for Pacific Division supremacy, and perhaps even ownership of Los Angeles from San Pedro to the San Fernando Valley! The Lakers and Clippers should be primed for serious battle, between the playoff seeding at stake, the local bragging rights, and quite frankly, because they don't care much for each other. To preview this contest, we called upon Kevin Arnovitz and Jordan Heimer, host of ESPNLA.com's "The Clipper podcast." You can hear the show by clicking on the module, and a breakdown of talking points is below.





- (1:50): We examine my theory about how the Lakers only play consistently well against teams they collectively hate (the Clippers, Mavericks and Celtics) or Kobe hates (the Suns, #NeverForget).

- (3:45): Blake Griffin's annoying on-court behavior (primarily flopping, although some don't dig the post-dunk preening) is compared to Andrew Bynum's troubling behavior on and away from the hardwood.

- (11:00): Arnovitz and Heimer break down how the Clippers' once-sinking fortunes suddenly turned. In particular, the defense has suddenly improved.

- (17:50): This will be the Lakers' first game against the Clippers with Ramon Sessions in the fold. How will he fare defending Chris Paul? (And if he struggles, who picks up the slack in his place?) Can Sessions place pressure on a team that sometimes struggles in pick-and-roll coverage?

- (26:00): How do Arnovitz and Heimer expect Kobe Bryant to be defended?

- (27:20): Predictions!

- (30:00): The Clippers got their act together almost immediately upon the reinstatement of Clipper Darrell. Pure coincidence or testament to the power of a super-fan who now "understands his role?" And yes, I do find the notion of a meeting to spell out Clipper Darrell's "role" hysterically funny.

Thud.

As you might expect on a night the Lakers double down on Tuesday's loss to the Pistons with an even worse loss to the Wizards, folks were a little upset. Tonight, we talk about a second straight bad night from Kobe Bryant, a total collapse defensively in the second half, and then try to figure out how the Lakers can look so good on Sunday, and then flounder so badly against two awful teams.

Can't say we have a definitive answer, but there are an awful lot of questions, and the next few games will be instructive.

Similar to how it wasn't prudent to get overly cocky after the win over Miami, panicking over Tuesday's loss in Detroit doesn't necessarily make a ton of sense. However, if that L is compounded by another against the 8-29 Wizards, I won't even bother trying to talk you good people off the ledge. There are much more enjoyable, productive ways to waste my own time.

For the inside track on the Wizards, we tracked down Kyle Weidie, who runs Truth About It for the True Hoop Network. Here are his responses to four question about D.C.'s squad.

Land O' Lakers: The Wizards roster isn't lacking entirely for talent, but the parts feel poorly matched. What primarily prevents the central players from jelling even moderately well?

Kyle Weidie: Building around a guy like John Wall requires long distance shot makers, and seeing as the Wizards have an NBA-5th worst eFG% of 46.1, team management hasn't provided their franchise face what he needs. This area hasn't been addressed through the draft in years, and veterans like Rashard Lewis, Roger Mason and Mo Evans aren't cutting it. Nick Young, who leads the Wizards with 38.2 percent three-point shooting, hijacks too many possessions for an ideal spot-up partner.

Washington's other glaring need is an offensive block player. The Wizards are desperate for an intelligent, space-eating player to run the half-court offense from the post. I'm not sure who thought JaVale McGee and Andray Blatche could form a united frontcourt tandem. The two mix as well as a cottage cheese, jellybean and raw herring taco.

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Matt Barnes was among several NBA athletes on hand Sunday at a L.A. charity basketball game organized by Baron Davis. Naturally, the postgame media sessions centered a lot on the presumably ended lockout and basketball happily back in business. Of course, there's been a lot of bumps and bruises endured by both sides before reaching this point, and the players have long maintained -- rightly, I'd say -- more concessions were made on their end.

With that in mind, I asked Barnes if the battle was worth it. His response reflects the complicated nature of this labor battle:

“It’s tough. It’s always a business, and we definitely need to stand up for ourselves. Everything wasn’t met, but I think it’s as good as it’s going to get for us. I’m definitely glad we took a stand. I wish we didn’t have to miss so much time, I wish everything could have started a little bit earlier in the summer so we could have fought and still had a full season, but 66 games is going to have to do.”

I imagine those sentiments summarize how most players feel in a nutshell. They're not thrilled with the new CBA, nor do they feel it's as fair as it could or should be. But they can live with it. And in the meantime, more is gained by playing professional basketball in an imperfect-but-still-pretty-darn-good setting than holding out for a Utopia not likely to arrive.



More thoughts on the lockout were shared in the videos below.

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LOS ANGELES -- When they talk about fitting endings, this is what they mean.

Only a championship game like Saturday’s could have capped off a revolutionary summer at the Drew League in South L.A., complete with appearances by some of the biggest and brightest stars in the NBA, breakout performances by low-key locals and up-comers and all kinds of crazy finishes, week in and week out.

Saturday’s 3 p.m. final at Colonel Leon H. Washington Park took it to a new, slightly unbelievable level. With the league charging an entry fee for the first time in its 38-year existence and limiting the number of fans allowed on the premises, there was a line forming outside the gymnasium two hours before tip-off. By the time they opened the doors, a half-hour before the start, roughly 400 people had snaked around the 800-capacity gym in anticipation of the final between defending champions L.A. Unified and Hank’s Blazers.

Then Unified, led by former NBA point guards Bobby Brown and Marcus Williams and Nuggets first-round pick Jordan Hamilton, took a double-digit lead a few minutes into the first quarter, stretched it out to a 23-point lead by the third and the buzz in the super-compact gym seemed to disappear.

Blazers forward Kenneth Faried, also a 2011 first-round selection of the Nuggets, changed that quickly, helping to start a run for his squad with an and-one off an offensive rebound that lowered Unified’s lead to 20 points with two minutes to go in the third. And, after Detroit Pistons forward Austin Daye, also a Blazer, poured in a 3-pointer midway through the fourth quarter to make it a 89-78 game, Faried followed it up with another tip-in.

Then, during a timeout, Brown sprinted out the gym and into a car and headed 10 miles due west on Manchester Boulevard to Los Angeles International Airport, where he had a flight to catch to Germany, where he will play this season, taking off in less than 90 minutes. That gave the Blazers a big boost, and they rallied to get the game as close as 89-85 with a little more than two minutes left.

But Daye had a one-on-one opportunity to score from the top of the key with Hamilton guarding him but couldn’t convert, and Faried got called for a crucial offensive foul while attempting to grab the offensive rebound. By the time Daye did hit a big shot, it made it just 95-90 and there were only 31 seconds left. Unified held on for the dramatic 99-90 victory.

“I thought we were gonna come back and win the game, actually,” Daye said afterward. “But they got a good offensive rebound and we took a bad shot, and that was it right there.”

“But, hey, at least we put in a good effort and made it interesting.”

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For those depressed after seeing Brian emphasize the "thin" options for free-agent point guards, buck up, campers! The shooting guard crop is better. Granted, it's hardly overflowing with eye-popping candidates, but upgrades, however small, are still better, right? There are definitely some 2's feasibly acquired, if not necessarily the proverbial "missing piece."

The "Unless they're so geeked to become Lakers a bench role and mid-level exception are amenable -- and mid-level exceptions still exist in the new CBA -- don't hold your breath" guys.

• Jason Richardson (UFA, Orlando)
• Jamal Crawford (UFA, Atlanta)

Even acknowledging both aren't likely to maintain their previous salaries, this wouldn't just be a paycheck below market value. We're talking the monetary haircut equivalent of Demi Moore in "G.I. Jane." Their roles could also be reduced along with their cheddar. On the flip side, those sacrifices would allow both to harbor less guilt over deficiencies (defense for Richardson, darn anything outside scoring for Crawford).

Between the two, Richardson is the better player and outside shooter (his three-point percentage hasn't dipped below 38 percent since 2007), but either can fill buckets at will. Hopefully, not at the Lakers' expense, since they're likely to remain opponents.

The "Not quite as expensive, but I still wouldn't hold my breath" guys

• J.R. Smith (UFA, Denver)
• Nick Young (RFA, Washington)
• Arron Afflalo (RFA, Denver)

For Smith and Young, mid-level-ish money is perhaps more realistic. The bigger headache, however, likely comes after inking them. True, there's a desperate need for another wing not named "Kobe" or "Bryant" who can create for himself, and these guys score in their sleep. However, wild shot selection, erratic decision-making, and porous D are part of Smith's package. And the equally undisciplined Young offers literally no other skill set beyond scoring. Similar to how Lamar Odom's is often described as a Swiss Army knife because of his versatility, Young's tunnel vision gunning makes him a spork.

For his part, Afflalo actually qualifies as a legitimate two-way player, not to mention a high character, steadily improving Karl favorite to boot. Thus, I'd be stunned if Denver allowed him to walk under any circumstances other than an astonishingly big offer the Lakers can't pony up in the first place.

Anyhoo ...

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