Can this marriage be saved?<\/p>\n
Can Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard actually pull things together over the final two weeks to get the Lakers into the playoffs and make things interesting for either the Spurs or Thunder in the first round?
\nSigns are pointing toward the affirmative.<\/p>\n
Memphis Grizzlies (51-24) at Los Angeles Lakers (39-36) Bryant has shaken off the effects of that sprained ankle and has been playing huge minutes in the Lakers\u2019 push to hold off Utah for the 8th and final Western Conferece playoff slot. Mike D\u2019Antoni kept KB on the court for all but 23 seconds in a win over Sacramento, and Bryant logged more than 47 in Tuesday\u2019s victory over Dallas. <\/p>\n And Howard has stopped goofing off and now has double-digits in rebounds 21 straight games \u2013 and 14 consecutive double-doubles.<\/p>\n Has the drama which dominated the Lakers\u2019 season through February finally ended at the Staples Center? Has LA finally figured out that the way to win games is to actually play hard and put aside petty jealousies? But even if the Lakers have their waste product together for the final push, there are no guarantees. Bryant points out that while the remainder of the schedule includes 6 of the final 7 at the Staples Center, there are some toughies in there \u2013 including tonight\u2019s game against a Memphis Grizzlies club that has its own fight on its hands and is trying to finish strong enough to steal the No. 3 playoff seed in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n Besides the Grizzlies, LA has home games against the Clippers, Hornets, Warriors, Spurs and Rockets. Utah\u2019s schedule is a bit softer, but the Jazz (a half-game behind the Lakers) have a 3-3 home\/road split, starting with the Hornets tonight in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a tougher schedule but I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way,\u201d Bryant said when asked about Jazz. \u201cIf you want to get to the playoffs and expect to make some noise, you have to beat playoff teams.\u201d Nash is expected to return after missing one game with a hamstring issue, and will be put to the test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Grizzlies vs Lakers NBA Handicapping Can this marriage be saved? Can Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard actually pull things together over the final two weeks to get the Lakers into the playoffs and make things interesting for either the Spurs or Thunder in the first round? Signs are pointing toward the affirmative. Memphis Grizzlies (51-24) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":28064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61472"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61495,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61472\/revisions\/61495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nStaples Center, Los Angeles
\n10:30 p.m. EST <\/strong><\/p>\nCLICK GRAB OUR BEST Expert NBA Picks for 2013 HOOPS GAMBLING season!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
\n [ad-6571516]
\nLooks like it.<\/p>\n
\nAnd that would start tonight against the Grizzlies in a game which could turn on the play of point guards Steve Nash and Mike Conley. <\/p>\n