Will getting Steve Nash back help the Lakers?

The Lakers and Clippers were the hot topic on our live Google+ Hangout today at 11:30 a.m. when Times Lakers writer Mike Bresnahan and Clippers reporter Brad Turner discussed their respective teams.

One of the many topics covered was, where will these two teams be come February?

Bresnahan: “The Lakers will need until February to know exactly what they have. They will have Nash back by then. He still is not running by the way. So if he comes back Christmas Day, it’s gonna take him two weeks to get his legs under him, since he hasn’t done anything since Halloween. And then they will try to battle for a lower seeding in the playoffs.”

Turner: “The Clippers will get Chauncey Billups and Grant Hill back, so they will get better. They are playing good solid basketball. Good team basketball. They don’t care who leads the team in scoring. They just want to win. So come January, they will be leading the Pacific Division and they will be in the top four in the Western Conference.”

A rebound for the Lakers can’t come too soon for Kobe Bryant. As he told T.J. Simers on Tuesday,

“This is the toughest stretch, the most challenging stretch in my 17 years for sure,” said Bryant while sitting calmly in front of his locker taking on all questions.

“It kind of gets like that Mr. Magoo syndrome (or Joe Btfsplk from Li’l Abner); the clouds just following you around all the time. To break that you have to be extremely determined to change momentum.”

Is Kobe upset?

“I’m very upset, and in the past I would blow my top and go crazy,” he said. “Then I had a head coach [Phil Jackson] who always kept calm and I learned from that.

“I’m trying to do the same thing here, but I won’t lie; they’re messing with my Zen stuff.”

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