All season long the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers have had injury problems to some of their best players like Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and most notably Kobe Bryant, but despite being banged up throughout the season, the Lakers have been arguably the best all around team in the league and have a legitimate shot of repeating as NBA champs at season’s end. At the beginning of the NBA regular season, the Lakers had to play without Pau Gasol who had a nagging hamstring injury that kept him out the first 11 games of the season. Fortunately, the Lakers were able to go 8-3 in that 11 game span without Pau Gasol in the paint, but a big reason for the Lakers success in that time frame was due to Kobe Bryant altering his game by becoming more of a low post presence.

Even though Kobe had some great success in Pau’s absence, the more physical game took its toll on the reigning NBA Finals MVP as he started to accumulate a series of injuries like a broken finger, back spasms and most recently a sprained ankle.

Once Pau Gasol got back on the floor it was business as usual for the defending champs as they got out to 38-13 record with Kobe in the lineup, but the injuries became too much for the Lakers superstar and he had to take some much needed time off to heal from his ailing injuries.

Even though a broken finger sounds like something you just can’t play through, it didn’t seem all that difficult for Kobe to adjust to, but after spraining his ankle against the Denver Nuggets a few weeks back, he had to end his 235 consecutive games played by sitting out against the Portland Trailblazers. With Boston facing Denver on Sunday, check out the latest NBA odds at the best USA online sportsbooks.

Fortunately, the Lakers really stepped it up in Kobe’s absence and were able to win four straight games against the Portland Trailblazers (at the Rose Garden), San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz (in Utah) and the Golden State Warriors. The first three wins were impressive and the fourth was to be expected against the lowly Warriors, but the true test came on Thursday night against the Boston Celtics.

Coming into this game there were reports that Kobe would be ready to go, but as it got closer and closer to game time, Kobe was listed as doubtful and eventually out of this game against their arch rivals.

All game long against the Celtics the Lakers were hanging with the Atlantic division leaders, but when it came down to crutch time, Kobe time, in the fourth quarter and the Lakers looked confused on the last play of the game with 2.2 seconds remaining down by one point 87-86.

On the inbounds play, the basketball ended up in Derek Fisher’s hands, but he was only able to jack up an awkward shot that didn’t even hit iron and the Lakers lost their first of five games without Kobe Bryant. for the fastest and easiest way to make a wager on the NBA, check out the best American Express sportsbooks.

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The Western Conference had the first team to draw blood in the trade sweepstakes as we get closer and closer to the NBA trade deadline on February 18^th. The Dallas Mavericks made the deal with the Washington Wizards to bring Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood to Texas while sending Josh Howard and Drew Gooden to the nation’s capital, but this trade looks like it was just the beginning of a very active trading session which will most likely be dominated by teams in the Eastern Conference. These trades may have a big impact on the upcoming USA online sportsbooks action.

Miami Heat

With a win on Tuesday night over the Philadelphia 76ers, the Miami Heat were finally able to get back to .500, but they are nowhere near satisfied as they seem to have their sights set on upgrading their roster with the likes of Amare Stoudemire.

The Heat will have some stiff competition with the trade deadline looming as the Cleveland Cavaliers also their sights set on Stoudemire, but Dwyane Wade’s squad might have the advantage with Jermaine O’Neal’s expiring contract and youngster Michael Beasley.

Trade bait: Jermaine O’Neal, Michael Beasley

Cleveland Cavaliers

This season the Cleveland Cavaliers are in somewhat of a desperation mode as they try and do everything they can to convince LeBron James to stay in Cleveland for as long as possible. The only way they can see LeBron staying with the Cavs is if they can surround him with some better talent, namely Amare Stoudemire.

Along with wanting to bring in Stoudemire, the Cavs are also interested in Troy Murphy, Antawn Jamison, Corey Maggette and Andre Igoudala as a backup plan.

Trade bait: J.J. Hickson, Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics have been pretty banged up this season with injuries to everyone of the big three (Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce), but despite their injury problems they have played well this season and still have a legitimate shot of contending for a title in the Eastern Conference. Check out the latest NBA odds at the worlds best online sportsbooks.

Even though the Celtics are still looking good right now, they can’t avoid the trade rumors involving Glen “Big Baby” Davis and Ray Allen.

It is unlikely that Boston will make a deal, but if they do, it will almost certainly one or both of these players.

Trade bait: Ray Allen, Glen “Big Baby” Davis

Chicago Bulls

The Chicago Bulls have had their fair share of problems this season and haven’t really been the promising young team we all saw take the Boston Celtics to the limit in the first round of the playoffs last season.

With that being said and the Bulls have been considering making a trade before the trade deadline in an effort to make a late push for the playoffs in the second half of the season and possibly clear some cap space of the upcoming free agent market this summer.

If the Bulls do make a deal, it will most likely include Tyrus Thomas as the center piece.

Trade bait: Tyrus Thomas, Kirk Hinrich, John Salmons, Brad Miller

Other teams in the East in trade market: Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks, Indiana Pacers

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This NBA season has been a rough one for the New Orleans Hornets as they have had an up and down year so far in the first half of the season. With 11 losses in the first 18 games of the season, the New Orleans Hornets looked like a promising young team that was going down the tubes. As a result of their very disappointing start to the year, the Hornets fired former head coach of the year in Byron Scott. The firing sent shock waves throughout the league as no one saw it coming despite the horrible start to the season.

Even though the firing of Scott seemed very premature, the Hornets were able to turn it around at the beginning of the post-Scott era in New Orleans.

The Hornets were able to get back on track without Byron Scott pacing the sideline, but then they received some more bad news as Chris Paul went down with an ankle injury which would keep him out seven games. Despite Paul being inactive with this ankle injury, the Hornets played better than expected with four wins in those seven games without their superstar point guard Chris Paul.

Considerable time has passed since Paul went down with that ankle injury that kept him out seven games earlier in the season, but now the New Orleans Hornets have a 26-23 record in arguably the most competitive division in the NBA in the Southwest where they have to compete with the likes of the Dallas Mavericks (31-18), San Antonio Spurs (28-19), Houston Rockets (26-22) and the Memphis Grizzlies (26-22).

The Hornets may be in last place in the Southwest division, but only five games divide the last place Hornets with the first place Mavericks which means anything can happen from now to the end of the season.

Even though the New Orleans Hornets aren’t out of the running in the division just yet, they suffered a major blow recently when they found out that Chris Paul would miss one to two months after finding out he had to undergo knee surgery.

Now the point guard position will be put in the hands of rookie Darren Collison out of UCLA.

At first, many people, including former head coach Byron Scott believed that the rookie wouldn’t be able to handle taking over for arguably the best point guard in the league, but after just a few games of filling in for the All-Star, Collison has looked much better than anyone expected with 41 assists in three games as the starter.

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