Not surprisingly, the Lakers' bandwagon is getting crowded.
"One through 12, they are the deepest team in basketball," said ABC-ESPN commentator Mark Jackson, who Sunday will work Game 1 of the Lakers' first-round series against the Denver Nuggets with Mike Breen and fellow commentator Jeff Van Gundy.
"Certainly capable of winning it all, especially when you have the best player in the world," Jackson added.
TNT's Reggie Miller, who will work Game 2 of the series Wednesday night with Marv Albert, says he believes the Lakers are title bound if Andrew Bynum is able to play.
"If he comes back and plays 12 minutes a game, averages six to eight rebounds and three blocked shots, they will win it, hands down," Miller said.
Maybe TNT's Charles Barkley is the voice of reason here. In between taping appearances for the Jay Leno show (he was on Wednesday night) and the Jimmy Kimmel show (he'll be on tonight), Barkley offered his opinions.
Of the Denver-Lakers series, he said: "It will be more competitive than people realize. I think Denver is dangerous. I think the Lakers will win this series, but it is going to be very difficult.
"Dallas would have been a better matchup. The Lakers are too big for Dallas."
Barkley also believes an NBA title will be difficult if Bynum is unable to play.
"I don't think they can win this thing without Bynum," he said. "They could. I would make them a prohibitive favorite if they had Bynum. They're one of the favorites without him."
Barkley said Bynum's development and the Pau Gasol trade are the keys to the Lakers' successful season.
"Remember when we stole everything from the Indians?" he said. "That's what it was like when the Lakers got Gasol for nobody."
The Lakers go into the playoffs as a big television attraction. Their final regular-season game, even though it was a lopsided 124-101 victory over Sacramento, got a 6.7 rating, the highest of the season for an FSN West telecast.
And it was the cable network's fourth-highest rating all time for a regular-season game. The highest was a 7.5 for a 92-84 win over Portland on Feb. 21, 2003, when Kobe Bryant scored 40 points, his eighth consecutive game with at least that many, and Shaquille O'Neal was returning from an injury.
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