Just when the team began to play at full-strength, they lost Pau Gasol to a foot injury for six weeks and Kobe Bryant suffered a severe ankle sprain. Despite the cruel number of injuries, the Lakers managed to climb out of the cellar at 17-25 and re-enter the playoff conversation at 36-32.
And now, down goes Metta.
“I was hurt because Metta, he’s been strong all year,” Dwight Howard said. “He hasn’t really had that many problems and then he gets hit with a serious injury. It just seems like all year when somebody comes out [off the injured list], somebody does down. So, it’s kind of tough and to see Metta go down, it kind of hurt.”
With roughly 11 games to play, the Lakers (36-35) are losers of three straight and are currently just one game ahead of the Utah Jazz and suddenly revitalized Dallas Mavericks.
They will embark on a three-game road trip tonight that starts in Minnesota (16-17 at home), followed by Milwaukee (18-17 at home) and Sacramento (19-16 at home). Aside from Milwaukee, the 8th-seed in the East, these are not great teams, but they are .500 teams at home. The Lakers are 13-23 on the road.
Oh, and the Dallas Mavericks will be waiting to greet them when they return home Tuesday night in a nationally televised game.
The last time the Lakers and Mavericks met, LA needed a virtuoso Kobe performance to secure a 103-99 win.
Ben Baroff is a basketball journalist who blogs for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter here.