Ultimately, though, it's that streakiness that will end up killing their season.
No team in the NBA may be more up and down than the Lakers, and not just from a game-to-game basis. Mike Brown's team can be very streaky from a quarter-to-quarter basis.
The Lakers have been decent on the defensive end all season and have been outstanding crashing the glass, but their offense is a roller-coaster ride.
What the up-and-down performances average out to is a team that's scoring at a 94.9 point-per-game clip. That's good for 17th currently in the NBA in scoring. On paper, that makes the Lakers nothing more than an average team.
Average teams get beat in the first round of the playoffs.
So far through eight games, the biggest problem with this team is that they can't shoot the ball.
Their field-goal percentage as a team really isn't that bad at 46 percent from the floor. That number is a little misleading, though. The performances of Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol from the floor will keep that number respectable.
Everyone else, though, is not doing a good job shooting the ball, Kobe Bryant included, who's on pace to shoot a career-worst percentage from the floor.
What could really doom this team, though, is their percentage shooting the ball outside the paint, especially from behind the arc.
The Lakers are knocking down only 23 percent of their three-point attempts. Only the Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Hornets are currently shooting worse.
Brown's teams have never been that great offensively, but until the Lakers make Bynum and scoring in the paint their primary option on offense or find a way to shoot the ball from the perimeter much better, the streaky shooting of the Lakers will do them in at the end of the day.
