Karma is a B...

Dwight Howard. Meet karma.

In his first matchup against his former team, Howard could only muster 9 of 21 from the freethrow line as Jaques Vaughn, the Orlando Magic's coach, utilized the hack-a-Howard to great effect. The Magic continued to send Howard to the freethrow line up until the last two minutes of the game (when this strategy results in a technical plus the ball). But, by that time, the damage had been done and the Magic held a 12-point lead.



Howard reentered the game in the fourth quarter with 7:07 left and the Lakers up 84-78. A minute later following an Aron Afflalo three, a Howard miss, and then a Glen Davis jumper, the Lakers held a tenuous 84-83 lead. The Magic commenced hack-a-Howard and proceeded to dismantle the Lakers  with terrific ball movement and behind some timely shooting from JJ Redick, Nikola Vucevic, Jameer Nelson, Afflalo, and Davis. The Magic closed out the Lakers, in their own building, with a 29-18 run in just over six minutes of play.

Pau Gasol sat and watched as Howard went 5-12 from the charity stripe. The tendinitis in Gasol's knees is obviously limiting his athleticism--which of all of Gasol's gifts, is his least generous. Gasol has taken a great deal of grief over his Lakers tenure for a variety of reasons, but one thing he has consistently done is play. He's averaged 37 minutes a game for the Purple and Gold and outside of his 2010 season (where he missed 17 games), has played in every other game save two over the past four seasons. Speaking of minutes, the elder Gasol's have been in steady decline since Mike D'Antoni took the reigns.

Jordan Hill has also seen his minutes all but evaporate with Antawn Jameson getting more and more playing time. It's too bad too, because he had been playing extremely well before D'Antoni. Bring athleticism and activity off the bench much in the same manner as Matt Barnes did when he was healthy last year.

Hill sitting should have been expected however, seeing as how he previously struggled under D'Antoni in his rookie season with the Knicks. He shot 44 percent in 10 minutes a game and was eventually traded midseason despite being the Knick's first round pick (seventh overall) in the 2009 NBA draft.

Hill plays nicely alongside Gasol and a temporary solution could be to move Gasol to the bench to anchor the second unit and let Jameson's floor spacing help open things up for Howard. Another player who should be moved into the starting lineup is Chris Duhon, who despite a recent shooting slump, is light years more composed than the second year Darius Morris, and who knows how to play against NBA players--something Morris is still trying to figure out from night to night.

In their losses under D'Antoni, the Lakers have not separated themselves in the first quarter, something that is absolutely vital for a team with a bench that has proven, thus far, to be one of the worst in the Association.

Duhon adds a veteran presence, and a proven floor spacer, who might not bring flash, but nearly always makes the correct basketball play. The starters need someone steady and can't afford to let Morris learn on the job. Morris with the second unit makes more sense as the majority of the offense would be run through Gasol.

These fixes would only be temporary until Steve Nash returns to the lineup. In the end, the five best players need to be on the floor together, and Gasol--even a struggling Gasol--certainly qualifies. I think Nash will have a positive impact on Gasol, but the root of the problem will remain. Gasol is a decent floor-spacer, but he is not ideal and is not a three point shooter. With his knees grounding him even more than normal, he has struggled to finish off the pick-and-roll (something he wasn't great at anyway) and has struggled in the pick-and-pop as well. Nash can do a lot of miraculous things on the court, but curing another player's tendinitis is not one of them.