On April 12th, Los Angeles Lakers’ superstar Kobe Bryant went down with what he said was a torn Achilles tendon, it was announced Bryant would be out for the rest of the season. Many Lakers’ fans held their head down, because they thought at the moment what else can go wrong this season. Other Laker fans were thinking this is the end of our disappointing season. But, it turns out it really wasn’t the Lakers won two crucial games versus the San Antonio Spurs and the Houston Rockets to clinch the 7th seed in the Western Conference.

The Lakers will be playing the Spurs in the first round of the 2013 NBA playoffs. Some people are saying the Lake Show doesn’t stand a chance, but i believe the Lakers have a better chance to make a deep run without Bryant than with him. Yes, i did in fact say that. The Lakers have a better chance to make a deep run without Bryant than with him.

The key to a deep Lakers’ run is Dwight Howard. The man they traded for in the off-season. For the last few years I have always wondered with the Lakers why aren’t they running through their two seven footers. They have a mis-match on nearly every opponent and they shouldn’t be running from the outide-in the Lakers should be running from the inside-out. And when you have a guy like Bryant, that maybe a problem because he wants his share of touches too.

At the start of the season I expected them to run through Pau Gasol and Howard, but they weren’t. I understand that Howard was still trying to recover from his shoulder injury, but when you have a mis-match nearly every night it should be obvious on what you should be doing.

Now that Bryant is out for the rest of the season, we maybe able to see what we should have seen all season. Constantly feeding Howard and Gasol every time you come down the court. One big negative on doing that is you have to worry about Howard getting fouled and when he gets fouled a lot he starts getting angry. Howard expects Gregg Popovich to use the ‘Hack-a-Howard‘, but it seems like Dwight has a positive attitude going into the serious and won’t get frustrated. Which should make Dwight happy.

Dwight says: “If they want to do that the whole series, God bless them,” Howard said when asked about the Spurs using a “Hack-a-Howard” strategy on Friday. “There’s nothing I can do about it but go up there and shoot the free throws. Even if I make them, they’re still going to do it. So, that’s not my concern. My concern is what I can control on the defensive end and then on the offensive end, just dominate. If they foul me, they foul me. We’re going to make them pay.”

Related articles