After a hot start this season, the Los Angeles find themselves in the midst of a losing streak that has hit four games after their loss on Wednesday to the Houston Rockets. Adding fuel to that fire is the fact that the Rockets played without Yao Ming and regular Lakers-killer Aaron Brooks yet still defeated LA 109-99.

The two most interesting stats may be that no Phil Jackson coached Bulls or Lakers team had ever lost four straight and won the championship that same season.

Since the arrival of Pau Gasol in February 2008, the team has not fallen four times in a row until now. In fact, the Lakers had not racked up three losses in a row during this Gasol era except for one time prior to the playoffs this spring. After that stretch, the team called a closed door meeting then came alive for a second straight NBA crown.

The Technical Foul Police help Lakers lose to the Suns

The last two seasons analysts had predicted doom for LA if the team continued playing down to its competition or waited to “turn it on” when faced with elimination. The Lakers defied all those predictions and have the NBA Championship rings to prove it.

So with this recent streak questions are being posed about the team that only a month ago was being hailed as deeper than the two that won the championship. Early on they played with passion and the bench was a revelation with the addition of point guard Steve Blake and forward, Matt Barnes.

Since then they are finding themselves losing to teams like Memphis, Indiana and Houston, three teams not considered to be loaded with near as much talent as the Lakers. The usual suspects are being dragged out for flogging–Kobe shoots too much, Gasol is playing too many minutes, Bynum isn’t on the court and Ron Artest isn’t performing on the offensive end of the court.

Phil Jackson knows that repeating as champ is tough enough but three-peating is much more challenging and the season is a marathon, not a sprint. The four game losing streak stat will loom over all of this, but those who are familiar with the team won’t be surprised if it becomes meaningless by the time this season comes to close.

Used with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

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