After a hot start to the season that added to everyone’s belief that the 2009-2010 Lakers would end up in the same place that the 2008-2009 team did (i.e. the NBA Finals), the Lakers have struggled to finish off the regular season this year and doubts are creeping up everywhere as to whether this team has what it takes to repeat as champions.  All former NBA champs will tell you that repeating is 10 times harder than wining it the first time, but never have I been a believer of that until watching this year’s Lakers squad crawl through the last two months of the regular season.  The hunger just does not seem to be there and the players look worn out after playing more games over the past 20 months than any other team in the league.  Only time will tell whether this Lakers squad can turn it around and repeat as champions for the first time since their Kobe-Shaq three-peat years of the early 2000s.  The team faces a big test tonight against their most likely contender for the western conference crown, the Denver Nuggets