44 games into the Lakers season and it appears that they may have finally found some sort of chemistry and cohesion. Well at least for now.

The “super team of the decade” have been choking under the pressure as their off-the-court issues have been getting into the way of their play.

Their well-documented confrontations have raised many questions of trade speculation involving some of their marquee players. But as of late it seems like all of this may be finally behind them.

So what was the tipping point? It was reported that the Lakers had a team meeting in Memphis last week where Kobe asked Dwight Howard straight up, “do you want to play with me?”

Then Kobe said he wanted to direct the offense and Howard needed to take a secondary role then dominate the defense.

So how does the more always smiling Howard like confrontational Kobe?

“I love it,” Howard said. “That’s something we needed. A lot of times we have a lot of guys come together and nobody wants to step on anybody’s toes or do anything against anybody else. We want to win. In order for us to win, we have to pull the best out of each other every night….

“We all know Kobe is the first option,” Howard said. “Whoever scores after that doesn’t matter. The defensive end is where I take lead and make sure I hold guys accountable and make sure do my job in being active.”

What did you expect him to say? This dude is an actor. Let’s see what happens when they start to string together some losses again.

Duncan Steel | Elite.