The inevitable finally happened on Sunday as the star-studded, but struggling Los Angeles Lakers (1-3) finally won their first game in 12 games (eight more counting their 0-8 preseason) against the Detroit Pistons with a lopsided 108-79 victory.
Behind Dwight Howard's 28 points, Kobe Bryant's 15 points and eight assists, the Lakers dominated the winless Pistons (0-3) after a 34-13 first quarter, even without injured point guard Steve Nash, out for a week with a leg fracture.
However, they face another tough test Wednesday when they match up against Derrick Favors, Enes Kanter and the Utah Jazz.
It's no secret that the Lakers have been looking like a team on the ropes than a contender on the rise in the last few weeks. Their struggles have been understandable, in some ways, with Howard coming back near the end of the preseason after recovering from postseason back surgery, and the team struggling to learn the ball-moving discipline of the new Princeton offense.
But the games they lost to Dallas, Portland and their hometown rival Clippers should have been winnable games for the Lakers. This isn't meant as a knock against the very talented, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin-led Clippers or a very sold Portland team spearheaded by star LaMarcus Aldridge and promising rookie Damian Lillard. Even without Dirk Nowitzki, a Mavericks offense featuring the wildly talented O.J. Mayo is still formidable.
However, with a veteran team as loaded with talent as the Lakers, the concept of them not winning even one of these games was mind-boggling. How could a team that, on paper, looked so good be playing so bad?
Sunday's sizeable win over Detroit may have quelled the critics for the moment, but you can bet that those voices in the background sneering at their struggles will come roaring back if the Lakers don't win, and win convincingly, against the Jazz on Wednesday. Which makes the upcoming game that much more important for the purple-and-gold team.
To do that, the Lakers are not only going to have to get major production from Bryant and Howard, but they are also going to have to take care of the ball better. As Andy Kamenetzky of ESPN Los Angeles reports, the Lakers have been turning over the ball by an average of nearly 20 times in the last three games.
That number, Kamenetzky writes, is "just absurdly high, particularly for a team that's vulnerable in transition defense."
And with turnovers rates that high, there is no way the Lakers can get away with them unscathed against teams like the Miami Heat, which will make teams pay for turnovers and turn them into easy baskets and highlight moments.
And defensively, the Lakers are going to have to get better. In their three consecutive losses before Sunday, Los Angeles gave up an average of 106.6 points per game to opponents-hardly a formula for success. The focus will not only be on the players, but coach Mike Brown to get the Lakers to be stingier on the other end of the floor.
"Brown is a defensive coach, and the Lakers must be a defensive team to sidestep the Thunder and Spurs en route to their seemingly destined meeting with Miami in the NBA Finals," Ken Berger of NBA Insider wrote for CBS Sports.com.
Tip off for Wednesday's game at the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah is at 6 p.m., available on Time Warner Cable Sports Net and by radio at 710 ESPN or 1330 KWKW.
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