After losing eight of the last nine games, the Los Angeles Lakers have dug a huge hole heading into the toughest road trip of the season. The Dallas Mavericks were able to take down the visiting Lakers with relative ease, and former Lakers star James Worthy believes one of the main reasons for the team’s struggles could be a the lack of a leader (via TWCSportsNet):
“They have yet to come up with a leader, really. There’s no defensive leader out there like a Michael Cooper or somebody like that who can keep that defense together.”
Following the loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, the Lakers will stay in the state of Texas to face Dwight Howard’s Houston Rockets on Wednesday.
With the Lakers continuing to struggle, the team seems to be going through the motions at this point in time in an effort to figure things out while the team deals with numerous injuries.
Currently, the Lakers are dealing with injuries to Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Steve Blake, Jordan Farmar and Xavier Henry. All of these players may not be able to return in the month of February, making the team very thin in the leadership category.
In the meantime, Nick Young and Pau Gasol must shoulder the load for the Lakers. Unfortunately, Young may also be added to the list of injured Lakers with an apparent back injury that kept him out of the fourth quarter.
Needless to say, this season is turning out to be a disaster with injuries becoming a common occurrence for the Lakers. Losing Young could be devastating for this team as they will lose their leading scorer. Young is averaging 16.6 points per game.
_________________________________________________________________
Lakers News: Lakers Waive Forward Shawne Williams
