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With power forward Pau Gasol fully recovered from a torn plantar fascia, Mike D’Antoni now has the unenviable task of integrating the four-time All-Star back into the Los Angeles Lakers’ rotation.

Fortunately for D’Antoni, he doesn’t need his 7’0” center to play the role of savior. The Lakers went 13-7 during Gasol’s absence, and the team broke the century mark in scoring 12 times over that stretch. Earl Clark did an admirable job holding down the power forward spot (he averaged 8.5 PPG and 6.4 RPG while starting in place of Gasol) and an even more impressive job of staying out of Kobe Bryant’s way.

Clark is little more than a role player, however. Dwight Howard is the star of the Lakers frontcourt, and the 27-year-old center is finally starting to resemble the player who the team traded for this past summer. Howard averaged 16.3 points and 13.8 rebounds while Gasol was on the shelf and appears to be more at home on offense than he was at the start of the season.

Much like Howard, Steve Nash is slowly getting accustomed to his niche in D’Antoni’s system. Instead of initiating the Lakers’ offense, Nash now allows Bryant to handle most of the ball-handling responsibilities. These days, Nash is more of a spot-up shooter than a textbook point guard—the 39-year-old playmaker has finished with 10 or more assists in a game just three times over the past two months.

To refer to Bryant as the Lakers’ “point guard” would be a bit of a stretch, but most of the team’s offensive plays start with the ball in his hands (many of them end the same way as well). In his last seven games (he missed two contests recently with a sprained ankle), Bryant has tallied eight or more assists on five times.

So with Howard assuming the role of the traditional big man, and with Bryant and Nash essentially switching positions, what does this all mean for Gasol? For starters, now that he’s no longer burdened by being the Lakers’ primary interior presence, he can focus on facilitating the offense: setting screens, making good passes and finding soft spots in opposing defenses.

In an interview with Ramona Shelburne of ESPN Los Angeles, Gasol said:

“Once I get back into a better rhythm and get in better shape and start being more effective out there, I’ll try to do the right thing, make the extra pass and create a good flow out there. But I don’t want to get away from the other attributes that I do have and I think will be very helpful to our team.”

Meanwhile, it’s entirely up to D’Antoni and the rest of the Lakers coaching staff to figure out the best way to utilize both Gasol and Howard simultaneously. While it’s clear that Gasol is most effective when he’s around the paint, half of his shot attempts in his first game back were taken more than 10 feet away from the basket.

D’Antoni and Gasol haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, however. Back in December, the two met for dinner one night after practice in order to iron out a few differences. They appear to be on the same page now, but if they aren’t, there isn’t much time left to bridge the gap.

“We can’t do anything in the playoffs without Pau being comfortable,” D’Antoni said in an interview with Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated. “Pau is too talented and too good, Dwight is too talented and too good, not to figure it out.”

But as we learned in Gasol’s first game back, it’s going to take a while before Gasol is back at 100 percent both physically and mentally.

D’Antoni has less than a month to go before the postseason to figure it all out, but the smart money says that the team will be able to work Gasol back into the lineup with very little disruption. And while the Lakers aren’t counting on Gasol to be a star by any means, he’ll have to play at a high level for the team to have any chance of going far in the playoffs.

In the NBA (much like every other professional sport), most franchises take their cue from the teams at the top of the proverbial mountain. Finding someone to admit to it may be something of an arduous task, but there’s no shame in trying to follow the lead of the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Last summer, the Los Angeles Lakers made a few moves that appeared to vault them to the top of the pile. But in a cruel twist of fate, we’ve seen their approach to the “superteam” concept crash and burn in front of our very own eyes this season.

In the wake of a relatively uneventful trade deadline, it’s fair to wonder whether the Lakers’ early-season implosion made general managers a little gun shy when it came to pulling the trigger on potential deals. Sometimes—particularly in the case of the teams that didn’t make a trade for Atlanta Hawks’ forward Josh Smith—the best deal is the one that you don’t make.

The Los Angeles Lakers figured to be the big dog in the Western Conference yard this season once the team landed both Steve Nash and Dwight Howard in the span of a month. With four All-Stars in the starting lineup, what could go wrong?

Apparently everything.

Reality paid the Lakers an unwelcome visit long before the games counted in the standings. A winless preseason and a slow start (due, in part, to an injured Steve Nash) led to the dismissal of head coach Mike Brown. And a brief flirtation with Phil Jackson strangely resulted in the hiring of Mike D’Antoni, a man whose “seven seconds or less” offense doesn’t seem like a good fit for the personnel currently on the roster.

It definitely wasn’t a good fit for Pau Gasol, who openly and privately clashed about his role on the team. Add in Howard’s balky shoulder, and you have a recipe for disaster (or a 21-24 record—D’Antoni’s mark on the bench so far this season).

If we didn’t know before, we certainly know now: It’s impossible to just throw a bunch of players together and expect them to immediately play at a championship level. Despite his propensity to clown around, even Howard realizes how important it is for everyone on the court to be on the same page.

“[Chemistry is] something we have to do to get better,” said Howard in a January interview with ESPNLosAngeles. “We have to play like we like each other.”

It’s clear that the Lakers’ woes go far beyond the icy relationship between Howard and Kobe Bryant, but it’s also clear why Metta World Peace’s preseason boast of 73 wins was foolish. It takes a ridiculous amount of chemistry (and luck) for any team to win 89 percent of its games over the course of six months, much less a team where two of its four stars—Howard and Nash—arrived in town just weeks before.

You can’t buy chemistry, and it certainly doesn’t come as part of the package when you trade for a player. Chemistry is something that develops over time, and those teams that have it are often better off than teams who have more raw talent, but less experience playing together as a cohesive unit.

It’s why the San Antonio Spurs have been perennial contenders for more than a decade: Their core group enjoys a certain comfort level with each other that is a valuable asset during the course of an 82-game season. As long as Tim Duncan wears a Spurs’ jersey, you won’t see them make a big splash at the deadline that could ultimately upset the apple cart.

And for as much grief as the Miami Heat caught for not winning the 2011 title (and deservedly so given their frequent boasts), they should almost be commended for finding themselves two games from the Larry O’Brien Trophy that season.

Which is why Oklahoma City’s decision to part ways with James Harden was puzzling, to say the least. As a small market team, it was clear that the Thunder couldn’t afford to re-sign all of their talent, so they essentially “chose” Serge Ibaka over Harden and sent the 6’5” guard to Houston.

Oklahoma City appears to be headed toward great things this season, but its situation is an outlier. And as well as the Thunder are playing, it remains to be seen if this “era of good feelings” of sorts can carry over into the playoffs.

To say that the new collective bargaining agreement was the only reason for the lack of moves at the trade deadline is a bit short-sighted. Fans aren’t the only ones who are engrossed in the “Lake Show” this season: GMs around the league are watching and taking note. And thanks to everything that happened on the West Coast so far this season, many of them chose to sit out this past week in fear of repeating the same mistakes that the Lakers made.

On February 21, thousands showed up to the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles to pay their respects to former Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who passed away on Feb. 18 after an 18-month battle with cancer.

The Nokia Theatre crowd was filled with former Lakers players and coaches, and many of them took to the stage to express how much Dr. Buss meant to them personally.

One of those who shared his thoughts was current Lakers captain Kobe Bryant, who used the platform to both speak from his heart and to relay a message to the rest of his teammates, most notably Dwight Howard.

“I encourage all of you, me included, to just look around the room and look at the greatness of one man’s vision,” said Bryant to a crowd of approximately 4,000 people. “We all have one thing in common, that we all believed in Dr. Jerry Buss.”

Buss was a shrewd businessman who turned a $1,000 investment into a team that is now worth more than a billion dollars.

And when it came to his beloved Lakers, Buss was committed to doing whatever it took to win each and every season.

In the 33 years that Buss ran the team, the Los Angeles Lakers made the NBA Finals 16 times and won 10 championships. But despite the sense of urgency that seems to constantly surround the team, the thing that Bryant says that he learned the most from Dr. Buss was “to be patient.”

Somewhere, there’s a happy medium between Bryant’s drive and the laid-back attitude of Howard.

On one hand, there’s Bryant saying that he has “two years max” before he decides to hang them up. On the other hand, there’s Howard who believes that the current iteration of the Lakers has years to figure it all out.

One would love to have been a fly on the wall when Bryant first got wind of Howard’s comments. And while Bryant may, in fact, feel the draw of the fierce urgency of now, he did take the time during Dr. Buss’ memorial service to put this season in the proper perspective.

“[It’s important] for us to look around this room and to understand that we’re playing for something bigger than ourselves, bigger than a single season,” said Bryant, according to the Huffington Post. “We are playing for the memory of a great man, which is Dr. Jerry Buss.”

Earlier in the week, Bryant took the microphone prior to a game at the Staples Center and expressed a similar sentiment.

“His vision has transcended the game and we are all…spoiled by his vision and by his drive to win year after year after year,” Bryant said.

In short, Bryant was merely trying to convey the point that it’s not about one man or one incident or one game. It is—and forever will be—about winning the NBA championship. The time for petty disagreements is in the past, whatever happened before is now null and void.

It’s a tactic Phil Jackson often used on the Chicago Bulls teams of the ’90s and Los Angeles Lakers of last decade. Bryant studied under the “Zen Master” for several seasons, so he’s well aware of how Jackson’s method of passive-aggressive motivation works.

Whether it has an effect on Howard and/or the rest of his teammates remains to be seen. But until every member of the team realizes that the journey is far bigger than themselves, the Lakers will fail to achieve Dr. Buss’ ultimate goal.

Los Angeles Lakers power forward Pau Gasol is one of the most versatile big men in the NBA. He’s an exceptional passer, has a plethora of low-post moves and can finish with either hand around the basket.

However, you wouldn’t know that if you were only introduced to Gasol this season. Under the watchful eye of head coach Mike D’Antoni, Gasol now spends most of his time roaming the perimeter, robbing the 7-foot star of much of his effectiveness.

The 32-year-old forward is shooting a career-worst 41.2 percent from the floor, and is becoming increasingly disenchanted with each passing game. Gasol’s poor play has led to him being benched four times in the fourth quarter since D’Antoni took over just prior to Thanksgiving.

Now that Gasol spends much of his time 10-15 feet from the basket, his rebounding totals are suffering as well. Under former head coaches Mike Brown and Bernie Bickerstaff, Gasol had five double-doubles in the Lakers’ first eleven games. With D’Antoni on the bench, Gasol has grabbed 10 rebounds or more only once in 13 contests. Through 24 games, Gasol is averaging just 2.2 offensive rebounds per night—the lowest figure of his career.

“No, oh, that’s radical,” Gasol told ESPN. “I still have faith that I can be a big part in helping this team succeed.”

The head coach of the Lakers has faith as well, and in order to get on the same page with his star forward, D’Antoni invited Gasol out to dinner in late December.

“It was to make sure we’re in the same boat,” Gasol told the Los Angeles Times the day after the late-night meeting. “Hopefully, we can meet halfway on some points.”

Nearly three weeks later, the two parties still haven’t found much common ground. Gasol continues to hang around the foul-line extended area, spotting up for jump shots instead of rolling toward the basket and/or posting up at the start of each possession. And just as Gasol struggles to find his niche is D’Antoni’s system, the Lakers are still trying to find some level of consistency on both ends of the floor.

The most consistent thing about the Lakers offense is the way that they’ve miscast Gasol this year. This season, 51.1 percent of his field-goal attempts have come from 10 feet and beyond. By comparison, 44.3 percent of Gasol’s shots came from the same distance in 2011-12.

26.1 percent of Gasol’s shot attempts come from the top of the key, and only 10.3 percent come from either side of the paint. On the surface, that doesn’t appear to be the most practical way to utilize a 7-footer.

“It’s difficult sometimes because it’s not up to me to get involved,” said Gasol in an interview with ESPN on Jan. 4. “I’m trying, but the times that I am at the elbows are the times that I get more involved and can make more plays from there, but it’s not consistent.”

Obviously, the offseason addition of Dwight Howard means that Gasol can’t post up as often as he used to. But when one of the league’s best big men is relegated to running pick-and-pop plays with Steve Nash much of the time, something is wrong with the system, not the player.

“He’ll be good in any system,” D’Antoni told the Los Angeles Times when asked if Gasol can work in the Lakers’ current offensive structure. “There can’t be a system out there where, if you’re really skilled and know how to play, it doesn’t work for you.”

That statement doesn’t appear to be entirely true, given the Lakers’ 15-17 record and the overwhelming talent that they have on the roster. Yet despite all of the issues that the team has had this year, Los Angeles is still capable of winning the NBA title.

That said, there won’t be a parade through the heart of downtown L.A. unless D’Antoni puts his players in the positions where they’re most able to succeed. And for Pau Gasol, that position is much closer to the basket than where he’s been standing for most of this season.

The 2012-13 season is barely a week old, and the calls for Mike Brown to lose his job are almost as intense as the death stare Kobe Bryant gave him on Wednesday night.

However, it’s a bit unfair to point the fickle finger entirely at the Los Angeles Lakers’ embattled head coach. At the end of the year, Brown will be little more than a co-conspirator in the team’s eventual downfall.

Because despite having the talent to win an NBA title next June, the Lakers will fall short of their ultimate goal thanks to the efforts of one Father Time.

The Los Angeles Lakers are old. Using a tennis analogy, they would be considered the Roger Federer of the NBA. Six of the top nine players in the Lakers’ rotation are at least 32 years of age, and the five members of their starting lineup (when fully healthy) have a combined total of 64 seasons of NBA mileage on their collective legs.

For all of the grief that the Boston Celtics catch for being an older team, it should be noted that the Lakers have only one starter—Dwight Howard—under the age of 32. Heading into this season, Bryant and Steve Nash had logged 116 more  games over their careers (including playoffs) than the Celtics’ two elder statesmen—Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett.

The effects of nearly 1,400 NBA games (not to mention international play) have taken a noticeable toll on the seemingly ageless Bryant. While the Lakers’ shooting guard logged an impressive 38.5 minutes per night in 2011-12, Bryant’s true shooting percentage of .527 was the worst of his career.

Brown is already on record saying that he’d like to see Bryant’s minutes decrease in 2012-13. If the Lakers need their 16-year veteran to play more than 37 minutes per game during the regular season, Bryant may not have much left in the tank when the playoffs roll around.

So, to that end, the Lakers’ coaches realize that they need to be somewhat conservative over the next five months. Otherwise, the Kobe vs. LeBron dream NBA Finals matchup that many of us have longed for will never come to fruition.

In terms of pace, the Lakers are tied for 19th in the NBA at 94 possessions per game. The overwhelming factor behind the team’s rather pedestrian speed is due to the Princeton offense that Brown installed during training camp. But while a new approach in the half court may lead to a few more scoring opportunities, the Lakers simply aren’t built to run up and down the court like the Denver Nuggets.

Howard is seven months removed from season-ending surgery on his back, which limited him to 54 games in 2011-12. Nash has a broken left fibula that has already caused him to miss three games, and despite flying to Germany in 2011 for the innovative Regenokine treatment, Kobe Bryant’s arthritic right knee hasn’t magically healed itself.

So while the much-maligned Princeton offense has its flaws (as NBA Lead Writer Josh Martin recently pointed out), it does prevent a fair amount of wear and tear on the legs of the Lakers’ aged core.

Los Angeles will also be able to conserve some energy when the opponent is controlling the action. With Howard protecting the rim, many of the sins of defensive liability/notorious hand waver Nash will be absolved. It would be foolish to expect Nash to improve his on-ball defense at this point in his career anyway; instead of him trying (in vain) to check Tony Parker and Russell Westbrook, he can focus on making the talent around him better.

The Lakers’ defensive efforts have been rather pedestrian to start the season, but having Howard serves as an all-around cushion: He’ll save them a number of possessions, and his blocks (among other things) could translate into easy fast-break buckets courtesy of Nash. This will therefore ease the burden on their starting five.

This isn’t entirely new ground for the Lakers. The average age of the core group that led L.A. to the NBA Finals nine seasons ago (Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone, Gary Payton) was 32.75 years, the same as the average age as their current “Big Four.” And we all remember how that 2003-04 season ended.

The Lakers do have one thing working in their favor, however. At least they aren’t the New York Knicks.

Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike Brown is well-regarded in NBA circles as a defensive specialist. However, in Brown’s first year out in Hollywood, the Lakers weren’t much to write home about defensively, allowing nearly 96 points per game during the 2011-12 season.

Dwight Howard is set to change all of that.

The three-time Defensive Player of the Year is the most intimidating force in the league today, and his ability to dominate a game on both ends of the floor makes the Lakers immediate title contenders.

Part of the Lakers’ struggles on defense last season was due to the fact that their playmakers—namely Ramon Sessions and Steve Blake—had difficulty staying in front of the elite point guards in the Western Conference: Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, and Tony Parker, to name a few. At times, Kobe Bryant would slide over and help out on the perimeter, but more often than not, Sessions and Blake could only watch as their man drove past them on the way to the basket.

Former Lakers center Andrew Bynum altered his fair share of shots over the past few years, but he doesn’t possess near the same level of speed and lateral quickness that Howard has. And now that Steve Nash (a notoriously bad defender) is running the Lake Show, expect Howard to rack up quite a few blocks as LA’s last line of defense this season.

“[I]n a pick-and-roll situation defensively, he’s going to help guys like Steve Nash and Kobe and Metta [World Peace] and whoever else we have on the perimeter…because that is the way the league is going,” said Brown when talking about Howard in an interview with ESPN earlier this month. “Teams are playing smaller, quicker, faster…and to have a guy like Dwight involved in that or on the weak side coming over to help is something special.”

Other than Howard, Orlando hasn’t had any standout defensive players in recent memory, yet the Magic is notorious for making its opponents struggle on offense. The team’s success can be attributed almost entirely to the mere presence of Howard: With him on the court, Orlando allowed 102.7 points per 100 possessions last season, nearly seven points less than they gave up while he was on the bench (109.5 points per 100 possessions).

Howard frequently made up for the shortcomings of Orlando’s perimeter players, and will do the same for the Lakers. He isn’t just limited to being a rim protector or a help defender, however: Howard is fast and agile enough to close out on jump shooters 20-plus feet from the basket.

Blocks and shot alterations aside, the Lakers will be much better at limiting their opponents’ second-chance opportunities with Howard roaming the paint. Last year, Los Angeles allowed 11.5 offensive rebounds per game—the 12th-worst mark in the NBA. Conversely, Howard has led the league in defensive rebounds in each of the past five seasons, and Orlando limited its opponents to a league-best 10.1 offensive boards per game in 2011-12.

So not only will Howard make the Lakers an elite defensive team, but he’ll create additional chances on offense as well. And once the 6’11” center fully immerses himself in Brown’s playbook, there’s little reason why Los Angeles can’t dominate the Western Conference for the foreseeable future.

Note: A modified version of this article previously appeared on Bleacher Report.

Maybe David Kahn was right all along.

Kahn, the oft-maligned president of basketball operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves, has been the punchline of more than a few jokes since he assumed his duties nearly three years ago.

To be fair, he has given aspiring comedians quite a bit of material. In his first two seasons at the helm, the Timberwolves were 32-132.

But halfway through this season, Minnesota has already notched more victories than it did all of last year. And with the team eyeing its first playoff bid in eight seasons, it’s Kahn who just might have the last laugh.

For the first time since the days of Kevin Garnett, Minnesota’s games now qualify as must-see TV. Season ticket sales for the Timberwolves are at their highest level since 2005-06. And rookie point guard Ricky Rubio is single-handedly responsible for thousands of NBA League Pass subscriptions across the world.

The Timberwolves aren’t just primed for success this season. Truth be told, outside of the perennial contenders, Minnesota is the team that is best positioned for future success.

It felt strange to type that last sentence. It probably feels even stranger reading it. After all, this is the same franchise that was once forced to forfeit three first-round picks after entering a secret agreement to sign…Joe Smith.

But more than a decade after those shady backroom shenanigans, it looks like the Timberwolves may have finally figured it out.

In 2008, Minnesota traded the draft rights for O.J. Mayo to the Memphis Grizzlies for the rights to Kevin Love. As with any personnel decision involving the Timberwolves, the move was widely criticized at the time. Four years later, Love is the best power forward on the planet.

Rubio—drafted during Kahn’s first year with the team—has been in the NBA for all of two months, and he has already become one of the league’s premier playmakers. And if Derrick Williams ever figures out the nuances of the small forward position, Minnesota will be a serious problem in the Western Conference for years to come.

Most importantly, they’ve been able to reconfigure their roster while also being fiscally responsible. The Timberwolves’ core group (Love, Rubio, Williams) is locked up for the next three seasons, and the team has virtually no dead weight on their salary cap.

Even if they extend a qualifying offer to Anthony Randolph after the season, Minnesota will still have roughly $10 million to work with in free agency this summer. Of course, convincing players to come to Minnesota will be a task, but it’s a task made much easier by the emergence of Love and Rubio.

But while the Timberwolves may be the poster children for the next generation, the league’s other franchise that got its start in Minnesota is one of the last vestiges of the old guard in the NBA.

Two years ago, the Los Angeles Lakers were fresh off of their second consecutive NBA title. But for Lakers fans, that championship parade now seems like nothing more than a distant memory.

The last 10 months have not been kind to the franchise that once made its home in the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” Last May, the Dallas Mavericks dismantled them in the second round of the playoffs. Former head coach Phil Jackson—who led the team to five titles and seven NBA Finals appearances—decided to retire to his ranch in Montana. Meanwhile, Kobe Bryant went to Germany last summer to have a mysterious procedure done on his ailing right knee.

Two weeks before Christmas, the team’s fortunes appeared to take a turn for the better. On December 9, New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul was mere hours from becoming the newest member of the Lakers. But shortly after the trade was agreed to in principle, the NBA—de facto owners of the Hornets—nixed the three-team deal due to “basketball reasons.”

Paul would eventually wind up in L.A., but as a member of the other team that calls Staples Center home. Not only did the move make the Los Angeles Clippers instant contenders, it relegated the Lakers—once the darlings of Hollywood—to the role of understudy due to the theatrics of Lob City.

Meanwhile, Lamar Odom—who was part of the original Chris Paul negotiations—was so distraught by the non-trade that the team felt compelled to move him to the Dallas Mavericks for basically nothing in return.

Clearly, part of the Lakers motivation to acquire Paul was to turn the keys of the franchise over to him once Bryant retires. But the trade would have also reshaped a team that was—and still is—in desperate need of an overhaul. Nine of the 14 players on the Lakers’ roster are over the age of 30, and five of those players have 10 or more NBA seasons to their credit.

And with an older roster typically comes higher salaries: Los Angeles is already committed to nearly $68 million in payroll next season (for only seven players)—a figure that doesn’t include Andrew Bynum’s $16.5 million option.

Bryant has two years left on his contract and, as we witnessed in last weekend’s All-Star Game, still has a competitive fire that is matched by few others. If championships were won based on the sheer will of each team’s best player, the Lakers would have won the last 10 titles.

Bryant has shown flashes of dominance this season, but while the mind may be willing, the body is definitely weak. And weakness is a trait hard to hide in a league where young, hungry lions (or wolves, in this case) are quick to pounce on any visible flaw.

It almost seems premature to sound the death knell for Los Angeles considering that they have three players (Bryant, Bynum, Pau Gasol) who could start for virtually every team in the league. But unless Heaven and Earth are both moved and Orlando’s Dwight Howard somehow winds up in purple and gold, when the story of this era is finally written, the 2011-12 season could very well be considered the Lakers’ denouement.

Some 20 years ago, there seemed to be a natural progression when it came to the changing of the guard. Before winning six titles in eight seasons, the Michael Jordan-led Bulls had to earn their playoff stripes in classic battles against the Detroit Pistons.

The figurative passing of the torch is a little less ceremonial in today’s NBA. These days, a young, upstart team like the Timberwolves just might snatch the torch right out of the Lakers’ aging hands.

(Note: A modified version of this article was post to Bleacher Report on 02/29/12.)

Several times this season, the Sixers’ inability to close out games cost them a chance at a victory. Last night, the Los Angeles Lakers gave a clinic on how to finish strong, scoring 35 points in the 4th quarter en route to their 93-81 victory over the Sixers at the Wells Fargo Center.

Despite an off-night by Kobe Bryant, who scored only 9 points on 3-for-11 shooting, the Lakers turned on their championship form when they needed to, ripping off a 27-6 run that began late in the 3rd quarter to put the game out of reach.

“They cranked it up a little bit on us,” said Sixers’ coach Doug Collins following the game. “That’s what championship teams do. That’s what we aspire to do.”

One day after Lower Merion dedicated a new gymnasium in Bryant’s honor, the Sixers almost put up enough bricks to build a new gym themselves. In front of their second capacity crowd of the season (the home opener was a sellout as well), the Sixers missed their first 11 shots of the game.

Fortunately for them, the Lakers didn’t score on their first few possessions either. After Sixers’ center Spencer Hawes provided the first points for his team nearly five and a half minutes into the game, the team finished the period strong and wound up leading the Lakers 21-18 after the first quarter.

The energy in the building was palpable, and it clearly buoyed the Sixers after their slow start. The 18 first quarter points for the Lakers were the fewest they’ve scored in the first period of any game all season.

The Sixers kept it close for the majority of the first three quarters, despite the fact that their starting backcourt of Jrue Holiday and Jodie Meeks went scoreless in the first half. Holiday and Meeks finished the game with 12 points on 4-for-22 shooting (18 percent).

Their performance, or lack thereof, was nearly offset by the brilliant play of Hawes. It almost sounds like the proverbial broken record, but once again, Hawes continues to improve every time he steps out onto the court. In addition to his solid defense against the Lakers’ big men, he filled the stat sheet last night with 18 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists.

The performance of the night, however, clearly belonged to Lakers’ forward Lamar Odom. Picking up the slack from Bryant - who sprained his right pinky finger early in the game - Odom scored a season-high 28 points to go along with 8 rebounds.

In the Sixers’ defense, players like Odom and Lakers’ forward Pau Gasol present a difficult matchup for pretty much any team. So despite the marked improvement they’ve made since the beginning of the season, they’d have to play nearly flawless basketball to pull out a victory against the two-time defending champions.

Despite all of the excitement in the actual game, the biggest cheers came when Eagles’ quarterback Michael Vick and his fiancee showed up late in the 3rd quarter, much to the delight of the 20,366 in attendance. Chants of “M-V-P, M-V-P” rained down upon Vick, who was given his courtside seats by Laker Matt Barnes.

It should be noted that last night’s game marked the first DNP-CD (Did Not Play - Coach’s Decision) in the brief career of Evan Turner. Andres Nocioni - who hadn’t played in the previous three games - got the bulk of the minutes that typically go to Turner, presumably because Nocioni’s shooting prowess gives the Sixers better flexibility on the offensive end.

After yesterday’s game, the Sixers don’t play at home again until January 5. Tonight’s game in Orlando is the start of an 8-game road trip, with many of the matchups against the class of the NBA.

Games against the Magic, Bulls, Celtics, Lakers and Hornets will quickly test the character of this young team. But if they can play the way they have been over the past couple of weeks, don’t be surprised if they return to the Wells Fargo Center a far better team than they were when they left.