Kobe Bryant: Are L.A. Lakers Fans In Denial About Their Struggles?

About midway through the Christmas Day match-up between the L.A. Lakers and the Miami Heat play-by-play announcer Jeff Van Gundy made any interesting observation with the Heat up by 16.

"This is not a case of the Lakers taking the game lightly and not competing," Van Gundy said. "They are being out-defended and outplayed by a terrific Miami Heat team."

He must have known what the headlines in L.A. and ESPN were going to look like: "Lakers play terrible, fail to play to the best of their abilities and allow the Heat to win."

That's right. The Lakers have lost nine games this season so far and none can be attributed to them because they "didn't play their best." Couldn't nearly any team in...

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