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Daily Dime: L.A. Lakers on top

By J.A. Adande
ESPN.com

Sunday, January 4, 2009

LOS ANGELES -- The Lakers have a growing list of injured players. They have concerns that their young big man hasn't recaptured the form that made him so promising a year ago. They have lapses when they forget what it takes for them to be effective. They also have the best record in the NBA. And so, almost accidentally, the Lakers (27-5) claimed the top spot by beating Portland, 100-86, Sunday night after the Celtics (29-6) lost at New York and the Cavaliers (27-6) lost at Washington. Avoiding those losses to the bad teams is one of the ways the Lakers got here. They're 11-2 against sub-.500 teams (the exceptions coming at Indiana and Sacramento). They're also 18-1 at home. So that's the basic part of the formula: win at home, beat the bad teams.

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