The Los Angeles Lakers finally returned home on Tuesday, February 14 and celebrated with an 86-78 win over the visiting Atlanta Hawks. With a two-game winning streak on the line, the Lakers will host the Phoenix Suns on Friday, February 17 before heading to Phoenix on Sunday, February 19 to play the Suns again. The weekend of the 17th will feature two of the teams’ four matchups this season. However, the teams have already met once before this season on January 10, with the Lakers winning in Los Angeles 99-83 – a convincing win to say the least.

The Lakers leaned heavily on Kobe Bryant in that game as he scored a season-high 48 points. The Lakers also received solid outings from Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, who had a combined 28 points and 20 rebounds. The rest of the team could only muster up 23 points, showing that without Bryant’s outburst, the game would have been a lot closer than it was.

This time around, the Lakers’ guard hasn’t been shooting as well as he was for most of January. In their game against the Hawks, Bryant shot just 5-for-18 from the field and finished the game with 10 points. In fact, in the month of February he’s scored just 172 points in seven games, but in January he scored 531 points in 17 games. For you math fiends out there that is a 24.5 PPG average for February and a 31.2 PPG average from January.

I’m not saying that it’s time to start panicking if you’re the Lakers, but they definitely need to step up the offensive support around Bryant. Metta World Peace and Derek Fisher aren’t producing very much and their bench definitely isn’t what it once was. I would like to assume that they really miss Shannon Brown and Lamar Odom – speaking of Brown; they’ll see him when they welcome the Suns into town. Then again, I’m sure they were expecting a bit more out of Fisher, World Peace, and Steve Blake.

This is a Suns team that can be dangerous offensively if they get things running on all cylinders. The Lakers’ defense, first and foremost, will be most important against the Suns. Once they’ve established position, it will be up to them to control the flow of the game and execute on the offensive end. The Suns have lost nine of their last ten at the Staples Center against the Lakers; a statistic the Lakers would like to build on.

Bryant will look to regain his shooting touch as the Lakers play host to the Suns. The Lakers’ guard will find a rhythm early and lead the Lakers to their third straight overall win.

Prediction: Lakers 98 – Suns 92

David is co-founder of wrapupp sports blog where they post fresh content daily and present sports blogs and sports opinions – all with a West Coast bias. Growing up in the Bay Area, David is a huge supporter of all the local sports teams; the Giants, Athletics, Warriors, Sharks, 49ers, and Raiders. His one fault, admittedly, as many of his friends and family would say, is his love for the Los Angeles Lakers. Growing up, Magic Johnson was his favorite basketball player and he fell in love with the team. He chalks it up to, “Not knowing any better”. Now his love for sports has turned just as academic as it is intuitive and he follows most all sports all over the nation.

You can follow David on Twitter: @officialwrapupp

Sources:

NBA.com. Lakers vs. Suns Preview. NBA 2012.

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