Lakers are good, but we still don't know how good

L.A. Times: It has definitely been an amazing season around here. Well, an amazing four weeks anyway.

Not that there hasn’t been a disappointment or two for hard-core fans, who hoped the Lakers could be unbeaten going into the Christmas game against the Boston Celtics.

Now even Vic the Brick understands the Lakers aren’t likely to get 80 wins.

For one thing, there’s that Feb. 5 game in Boston . . . and the one three days later in Cleveland.

They also have two games at Houston. Of course, aside from that, there doesn’t appear to be anyone on the schedule the Lakers can’t handle.

I learned all this in my last visit to the rubber room where they keep radio’s Loose Cannons, from either Vic or

Mychal Thompson. Everyone yells so much, it’s hard to tell which of them has lost it at any given time.

In the real world, there’s an interesting question:

What would this Lakers team be like if it was really playing well?

In the first 13 games, they played well in a handful: The first two against Portland and the Clippers; the 111-82 rout of Houston; the win in New Orleans in which they led by 21 points at halftime; the wipeout in Phoenix in which Kobe Bryant was eight for 23 and they still ran up an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter.

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