EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Will the gray skies hovering over the Los Angeles Lakers' 17-25 season clear up? Dwight Howard still thinks so.

"Negativity just got to stop," Howard said after the team's shootaround Friday. "I'm sick of hearing about it. I'm sick of hearing about all the negative stuff. It's a big problem. Negativity is just not good. We got to bring some positivity to this situation, to everybody."

The Lakers got a bit of good news Thursday when Howard was cleared to play against the Utah Jazz on Friday despite reaggravating the partially torn labrum in his right shoulder during Wednesday's 106-93 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.

While having Howard in the lineup should help the team's chances, the fact remains the Lakers are closer to last place in the Western Conference (three games ahead of No. 15 New Orleans) than they are to qualifying for the playoffs (four games behind No. 8 Portland) with more than half the season in the books.

However, Howard said the attitude surrounding the team can do a lot to change those circumstances.

"I'm just talking about negativity in general," Howard said. "That's like a dark cloud, and the more you feed into the negativity, the bigger it gets. So, we have to change that and we have to believe. For all the fans and everybody who support the Lakers, believe. Yes, we're struggling. Yes, it's not the best time to be a Laker fan or a Laker player, but we will get out of it. There's a rainbow on the other end. We just got to make sure we get to it. I don't know if we got to eat some more Skittles or whatever it may be, but we got to find a way."

Yet even Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni, who has a reputation for being as optimistic as they come, acknowledged the problems the Lakers face.

"It's a challenge, there's no doubt about it, trying to get everybody on the same page," D'Antoni said. "Nothing works unless all five, 10 (players) buy in. Just getting everybody comfortable and buying in and having hard times hit you and you still plow ahead, that's been the hardest thing.

"We're not where we need to be. I am the coach, so I'm not doing what I need to do. But it's not been from a lack of effort from anybody. We're trying and we will continue to try and try to solve it."

Howard said he is continuing to solve the personal challenge of playing through a surgically repaired back that still isn't fully healed as well as dealing with his shoulder injury.

"I just got to play," Howard said. "It's the same thing with my back. My back, I'm not 100 percent with my back. My body is not 100 percent, but I just got to go out there and leave it all on the floor no matter what the situation is and just play through it.