The Portland Trail Blazers visit Staples Center on Monday to play the Los Angeles Lakers, a matchup of teams whose personnel issues became quite public over the weekend.
The Lakers (18-13) are coming off Sunday’s loss at Phoenix in which they were torn to shreds by the brilliance of point guard Steve Nash, while Derek Fisher and Steve Blake combined for two points in 47 minutes.
The most recent trade talk involves Pau Gasol, and superstar Kobe Bryant would like to see a decision made, one way or the other.
“I wish management would come out and either trade him or not trade him…I’d rather them not trade him at all but if they’re going to do something, I wish they would just…do it.”
The last time Gasol was traded in Feb. 2008, the Lakers cashed in with back-to-back championships.
This is the second time this season Gasol’s name has been prominent in a trade rumor. He actually was traded to Houston until NBA commissioner David Stern nixed the first Chris Paul deal – which would have given the Lakers a point guard.
The Lakers will need some stability as they prepare for a difficult back-to-back set against 
Dallas on Wednesday and Oklahoma City on Thursday.
The slumping Trail Blazers (17-15) have their own issues. Nicolas Batum replaced Wesley Matthews in the starting lineup and has flourished over the last four games, averaging 22.8 points and 5.5 rebounds.
But that move has limited the available minutes at shooting guard, where Matthews and Jamal Crawford are now behind Batum. Crawford, who signed with Portland as a free agent, dropped a hint to his thoughts when he changed the avatar on his Twitter account to one with a logo of the Atlanta Hawks, his former team.