Even Totally Healthy Kobe Bryant Won’t Cure All That Ails Los Angeles Lakers

Better Kobe Bryant, same result for the Los Angeles Lakers.

On Tuesday, the Black Mamba became the 10th different Laker to lead the team in scoring, with 20 points on just 11 shots (8-of-8 from the free-throw line) against the Phoenix Suns, including a driving baseline dunk in the first quarter.



But even Bryant's improved effort wasn't enough to stave off the feisty Suns in a 114-108 defeat for the Purple and Gold. The loss was L.A.'s third in a row at Staples Center—their longest such skid since January—and dropped the Lakers back under .500 on the still-young season.



At the very least, Bryant couldn't be considered one of the Lakers' main sources of agony on Tuesday. That's a big step up from Sunday, when he missed seven of his nine shots, turned the ball over eight times and generally looked sluggish during his season debut in a 106-94 loss to the newly Rudy Gay-less Toronto Raptors.

Truth be told, the Lakers' biggest flaws weren't really Kobe's to fix to begin with. Sure, it's great for L.A. to have a guy like Bryant to attract defenders like flypaper and bail them out with end-of-clock shots if/when need be.

But scoring in such situations isn't exactly among L.A.'s most pressing concerns at the moment. First and foremost on the Lakers' to-do list is a tightening-up of the defense. As Mike D'Antoni said after the loss to the Suns, via ESPNLosAngeles.com's Ramona Shelburne and Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times:



The box score backed up D'Antoni's assertions—and then some. The Lakers surrendered 21 fast-break points and 56 points in the paint to the Suns, who shot nearly 52 percent from the field.

Not that numbers like these are anything new to L.A. According to NBA.com, the Lakers have surrendered the second-most fast-break points per game and are tied with the Utah Jazz for the most points in the paint surrendered...

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