The Los Angeles Lakers have not been playing their best ball as of late, but the team is off to a much better start than last season with Kobe Bryant back in the lineup and now they are one game under .500 as they travel to take on the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena and the game will get started up at 7:30 pm and comes after a win for LA.
The Lakers have been dealing with massive injury issues this season and the team now is without Steve Nash, Steve Blake and Jordan Farmar and with the pressure on Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant, teams have been able to focus in on those players and that could make it tough for them to get out of the west if those other players don't heal up. The team has once again been mentioned in various trade rumors, but so far that has been all talk and they are on a road trip right now and have been playing well, winning over the Charlotte Bobcats and in that game Kobe led the way with 212 points and eight assists, while Jordan Hill snagged nine rebounds. Gasol has been complaining about the system for the team and he needs to get back to form for the Lakers to win.
Check here for the Lakers and Hawks stream coverage.
The Lakers have a tough battle out west compared to the east, as the conference is much deeper and they will likely need to win nearly 50 games to get things right and after playing against the Hawks the team will play against the Memphis Grizzlies on the road at FedEx Forum and that comes as a back to back from the Hawks game. The team is scoring over 100 points per game, but they are allowing more than they are scoring and rank 29th in defense and the team is ranked fourth in assists, but that will go down without Nash and Blake and Gasol is currently leading the team in scoring but chances are Bryant will take that back with a few more games under his belt.
The Hawks come into the game after a loss on Saturday night against the NY Knicks at Madison Square Garden and the team now plays against the Lakers and is at 12-12 on the season before hosting the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday. Marvin Williams led the way for the Hawks with 27 points, while Paul Millsap had eight rebounds and Jeff Teague had six assists on the night and now the team matches up with Gasol and Bryant. The team comes in ranked second in the league in assists per game and they have been solid on defense, allowing just under 100 points per game and they will have their hands full on Monday with a motivated Lakers team.