Los Angeles Lakers Midterm Grades

Mid-season has arrived for the Los Angeles Lakers and currently they are riding a seven game-winning streak with the lowly but dangerous Los Angeles Clippers next on the schedule. The Clippers have been playing good ball the last week and a half even though they currently have the third-lowest record in the Western Conference. They've won three of their last four games and that's no fluke with two of those games against the Heat and Denver. They're playing competitive basketball, and I would not be shocked if the Clippers put a stop to the Lakers seven game-winning streak. 

After the Clippers game, the road gets considerably tougher for the back-to-back champs. Of their next 5 games, four of them are against opponents with records above .500. Those 4 games will be nationally televised, with the exception of the Utah game which will most likely be voted as the fan night game since it is on a Tuesday. 

The Los Angeles Lakers have not performed well against opponents with winning records and if they're going to right that ship, they have to show up to these next four games. There should be no excuses as to why they cannot perform well against good teams barring injury the next two weeks. 

It would have probably been better if I wrote this article five games later but technically this is midpoint of the season and the other reason is because I couldn't wait. 

In this article, I will be grading each Laker on how they've done thus far in the 2010-2011 season. 

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