Road to 3-Peat: Top 5 Spoilers

Nadya Avakian
13 Min Read

No. 5 Complacency

“If he’s that hungry, I’m starving; I don’t think the mentality of the team is to sit back and get fat.”

-Matt Barnes on Kobe Bryant’s intensity going into the 2010-11 season

Jun. 04, 2010 - Los Angeles, CALIFORNIA, United States - epa02187835 Los Angeles Lakers' Pau Gasol of Spain (L) and Lakers' Lamar Odom during practce at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, USA, 04 June 2010. This NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics is the 12th time that the 17 time champion Celtics and the 15 time champion Lakers have met in the 64 year history of the NBA Finals with Boston taking nine of those series.

It seems silly to keep having to address the issue of complacency, when referring to any team of professional athletes, who get paid millions of dollars to leave it all out on the floor night in and night out. Now add the back-to-back champions tag, you figure the Lakers should be completely immune from any complacency-talk right?

Wrong.

Blame Los Angeles for being the reason the Lakers will forever be associated with a lackadaisical demeanor. It’s just the culture. Would it be nice if the Lakers got amped up to compete against more than just the big marquee teams? Sure. Do they have to? Not necessarily.

It’s a long season and in order for the Lakers to be victorious once again, they’ll have to figure out the perfect balance of maintaining focus and intensity. Finding motivation shouldn’t be hard considering a successful trip to the Finals means Phil Jackson completing yet another three-peat and the Lakers matching the Celtics in number of banners hanging above the rafters.

Next: A new Western power-house emerges

Nadya is a staff writer for Lakers Nation after joining the staff in 2010. To read more of Nadya's work click here. Follow Nadya on Twitter @NadyAvak.
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