Lakers have lost their edge

Can the Lakers win the NBA championship if they don't have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs?

They might have to find out the hard way.

The Lakers are one game behind the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have enough home games ahead of them to leave the Lakers behind them.

The Lakers (53-14) have the tiebreaker by virtue of a two-game sweep of the Cavaliers (54-13) this season, but that means something only if there's a tie that needs breaking. And that might not happen, with the Cavaliers playing 10 of their last 15 games at Quicken Loans Arena, where they happen to be 30-1 this season. Of course, the Lakers are the "1."

Meanwhile, the Lakers and their lose-the-lead ways will embark on a season-high seven-game trip after tonight's game against Golden State.

A ton of road games for the Lakers, a ton of home games for the Cavaliers. This might not bode so well for the Lakers, who experienced the importance of home-court advantage in last season's NBA Finals, when they went 0-3 in Boston.

Can they really finish ahead of Cleveland?

"Oh, yeah, sure. We'll just win all our games and then we'll see what happens," Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said facetiously Wednesday. "Who knows? Those are the things that make for an interesting season. But we're still going to go out to win ballgames and put the pressure there."

Lately, the only people the Lakers have put pressure on is themselves.

They've been getting large leads, fumbling them away, and either recovering in time to win or losing to a barely .500 team.

A 14-point lead that looked secure in the fourth quarter Tuesday against Philadelphia turned into a one-point loss after Andre Iguodala drilled a last-second three-pointer.

A 15-point, third-quarter cushion against Dallas on Sunday became a six-point deficit before the Lakers rallied for a 107-100 victory.

On the road in a tough environment in San Antonio last week, the Lakers put the Spurs in an 18-point hole. But the Spurs dug out of it and closed within two late in the game before the Lakers held on for a 102-95 victory.

If the Lakers want to stay close with Cleveland, they have a list of things to adjust, some of them attitudinal, some of them strategic.

Jackson continues to rail against the me-first play of the Lakers' reserves, who were soundly outscored by the 76ers' backups, 36-18, much to Jackson's chagrin.