Lakers Could Use Some Adult Education

Why the confusion about the Lakers’ playoff hopes? They simply are as erratic as all adolescents. In fact, they are the exact inverse of the movie “Three Men and a Baby.” And thank you, Karl Malone, for being the man among boys.

William David Stone

Beverly Hills

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Let’s plan for the parade and start monogramming the championship NBA trophy. The Lakers just defeated the Houston Rockets by one point at Staples Center.

Give me a break! The Lakers will win this year’s title when snowballs start freezing in Death Valley in August.

Charles Jones

Calabasas

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The biggest problem with the Lakers is that they’re a bit creaky with age. Kobe’s still young, of course, but Shaq has lost quickness and jump, Karl Malone has lost his step and his shot, and Gary Payton is still looking for those quick little guards who keep blowing by him. Fox is tough but slow; Fisher is determined but inconsistent.

Kobe ... who knows? He gets a lot of flak for throwing the ball up a lot, but who else scores for the Lakers? In the infamous Sacramento game, he passed out of the double team, just like everyone wants him to, but the open teammate missed the shot. Under those circumstances, Kobe might as well shoot it himself.

And we won’t even go into the ongoing melodrama of who said what to whom. Give me Tim Duncan and his professionalism any day.

I root for them, because that’s what die-hard Laker fans do, through good and bad. But sometimes it’s not easy.

Phil Brimble

Los Angeles

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Mike Penner says that this is the Lakers’ “second postseason playing short-handed,” and I agree with this statement completely. It is obvious to anyone who has watched the Lakers in the past two years that something has been missing. It’s not the personnel, it’s not the coaching and it’s not the front office. It is something intangible, but as important as all of the above. On Aug. 5, 2002, the Lakers not only lost the “soundtrack of their lives,” they lost their soul.

Ricky Lin

Pacific Palisades

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Please take Bill Plaschke off the commentary for the NBA playoffs. I’m not going to be able to take the horrible mood swings from him this year.

I don’t think we need any more reminders of the vulnerability of the Lakers this season, so I could just as well do without Plaschke’s opinions. Just put him on a sob story about a bubble boy who desperately wants to play in the NFL or something. He’s good at that stuff.

Jake Merrifield

Reseda

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T.J. Simers, you clanked one right off the rim. Your criticism of Shaq’s free-throw shooting missed the mark.

Shaq’s being surrounded by expert free-throw shooters is the same as your being surrounded by Pulitzer Prize writers. None of it seems to be rubbing off.

Bob Arranaga

Los Angeles