Numbers can tell story with Lakers [Lakers Vs Wolves]

Now that it appears the Lakers could be finishing the regular season without two-fifths of their starting lineup (or more) with Andrew Bynum saying he doesn't see the point of a pre-playoff return, Kobe Bryant considering resting his twice surgically-repaired right knee until the postseason and Phil Jackson hinting he'll be generously doling out rest to his roster the rest of the way, we're not going to get much more to gauge them on in games Nos. 80-82.

They clinched the top seeding in the Western Conference on Friday with a 97-88 win in Minnesota and about the only remaining notch they could possibly punch on their regular-season belt would be to stave off Orlando for the No. 2 overall seeding.

Los Angeles' final three games against Portland, Sacramento and the Clippers may not provide much to help determine whether or not Lakers fans should start planning for a long or short playoff run when the postseason tips off for L.A. on April 18, but the truth about this team is already out there.
Or as Jackson likes, to say, "The proof is in the pudding."

After writing as scathing a column as I've written about the team all season after the Denver game, I wanted to know if there were any stats to back up what my senses were telling me.
Just like when I attempted to accurately capture Bryant's ability in the clutch earlier in the season, I reached out to the folks at ESPN Stats & Information for an assist to see if they had numbers to support or refute my notions.

The first thing on my mind was a nugget that came up in a notebook last week when Derek Fisher didn't just use the usual generalities to describe the Lakers' inconsistency but made a pointed critique that the Lakers haven't been able to string together successful quarters at all, really.

Not counting the win over the Timberwolves on Friday, the Lakers hadn't won three out of four quarters in a game since March 9 against Toronto, a string of 14 consecutive games. For a team that's leading its conference, it just seemed suspicious. And there's good reason for that.

The Lakers have outscored their opponents in only three or four quarters of the game in 24 of their 56 wins. Now, this isn't a perfect measure of course because sometimes you blow out a team so thoroughly in the first half that you're bound to have a letdown with your reserves in in the second half. Plus, there are the games when you win three quarters by a couple of points each and then have one clunker where you're outscored by a dozen and lose the game, but still, it's a stat Fisher is paying attention to, so that makes it relevant.

Ten playoff teams have a better mark in this area than the Lakers do: Cleveland (30), San Antonio (29), Phoenix (29), Atlanta (28), Orlando (27), Oklahoma City (27), Denver (27), Utah (26), Boston (26), Portland (25). All of those teams except the Cavaliers and Magic have worse records than the Lakers do too, which means a lot the Lakers' competition is sharper in their wins than the Lakers are in their victories.
The next deficiency to explore was something ESPN's John Hollinger mentioned briefly in a column a couple of months ago. Namely, what's up with the Lakers' measly margin of victory since the All-Star break? While teams such as Dallas and Cleveland were steamrollering their competition on a regular basis, the Lakers have only three wins of 10-plus points since Feb. 16.

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