Top three questions facing the Los Angeles Lakers

• Lakers need to answer the Steve Nash question, the Dwight Howard question and Pau Gasol question

LOS ANGELES – Many of the Los Angeles Lakers' fans are questioning the team's baffling, bumbling start. A 9-12 record by the popular preseason choice to challenge for the Western Conference title has even Magic Johnson asking on twitter: "what is the strategy, identity and purpose for the team?"

Others question the choice of Mike D'Antoni over Phil Jackson as coach to replace the fired Mike Brown last month.

While those type of queries are fodder for debate on sports radio, there are three key questions D'Antoni, who succeeded Brown after a 1-4 start, needs to answer if he hopes to get things headed in the right direction.

D'Antoni has already said the return of point guard Steve Nash is key to the team's fortunes. Nash was a master at running D'Antoni's offensive system when the two were together in Phoenix.

Once Nash returns, the Lakers are hoping to get better play from big men Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol. Howard is not taking a lot of shots and is missing a lot of free throws. Gasol hasn't seemed to get going in the offense at all.

The Lakers hope to find some answers as they head out for a four-game road trip, beginning tonight in Cleveland.

Can Nash be the savior?

D'Antoni, starting with his introductory news conference, insisted that the Lakers would turn things around just as soon as Nash, who suffered a small fracture in his left leg in the second game of the season, got back in the lineup.

"Give him an hour and a half," D'Antoni said about how long Nash would need to fix what ailed the Lakers offense.

D'Antoni envisioned Nash running something akin to the Showtime offense that Magic Johnson ran in the 1980s. That seems a little far-fetched given how the Lakers have struggled to get out on the break and produce easy baskets. They were outscored 19-4 by the Utah Jazz on fast break points in their most recent loss – a defensive nightmare (117-110) Sunday night, when the boo birds came out in the fourth quarter.

The main Lakers players are old by NBA standards, with the exception of Howard (27). Bryant is 34, Gasol 32, Metta World Peace 33.

And the oldest of all is the one whose return they so eagerly await – Nash, the two-time MVP, a probable future Hall of Famer, who will turn 39 years old in February, whose scoring average dropped from 14.7 to 12.5 last season, who is a liability on defense and who hasn't played in six weeks and probably isn't going to play for another two weeks.

D'Antoni speculated Sunday that Nash might return at some point on the upcoming road trip but Nash told USA TODAY Sports that won't happen.

"I think it will be at least another two weeks," Nash said. "I can move. I can shoot. I just can't run full speed. And I'm not even in shape. I'll probably need at least a week of practice once I start running."

OK, then can he save the Lakers?

"I hope I can make a difference," Nash says. "I think the team is close to doing well on their own. It's hard. It's like a second training camp. The guys haven't had a lot of time to practice under Mike.

"We really haven't had a chance to play together in a new system, and we're trying to fight through that."

Nash says when he watches the team, what he thinks is missing most is "just time together. It's been a really difficult truncated season."

With the losses mounting – four in the past five games, including the two most recent home games (against Orlando and Utah) – will there be enough time to turn things around when Nash returns?

"I don't know, we'll see," Nash says. "I think anything is possible with this team. If we stick together and work hard, I think the sky's the limit. But we've got a tall task ahead of us."

Will Dwight Howard get going?

Howard's numbers are down (from 20.6 points and 14.5 rebounds per game last season in Orlando to 18.4 and 11.7 so far this season) and his frustration is up.

And, of course, his free throws are a disaster.

"It's psychological at this point," NBA analyst and former player Charles Barkley said on the Dan Patrick radio show. "I played on the second Olympic team with Shaquille O'Neal. At practice he made 85% of his free throws. I saw something that said Dwight shoots like 80% at practice. But once you lose it psychologically, you don't have that confidence. Think about it, he don't even have a bad stroke."

Howard's faith in the team, though, is strong, even after the Lakers' embarrassing defensive face plant against Utah Sunday.

"We know we're struggling," he says. "This is a time when a lot of teams might fold and might break up and stop trusting each other. But for us to win a championship, we have to stay focused and stay together. It's a long process and a long season. If we do that, we'll be playing better come June. I really believe we can do something special here. It's going to take time, and we're not going to lose faith."

Come June . . . well, don't accuse Howard of being a pessimist. He did let some negative emotions out on Sunday, though, when the Lakers were outscored 54-34 in the paint and Howard, for all his size and quickness, was unable to hold off the onslaught.

Howard, a three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, was frustrated at the lack of rotation by his teammates and by a failure to help him when he left his man to try to block or challenge a shot.

"He should be (frustrated)," Bryant says. "He's covering a lot of ground for guys. He can't do everything defensively. He's doing as much as he can."

Some nights, Howard is not doing a whole lot offensively, such as his 11-point game against Utah, when he produced just 10 field goal attempts in 42 minutes.

The reason is two-fold. Utah double-teamed him almost immediately, and he passed out to open teammates. On Sunday, that worked well at times, as the Lakers made 15 of 28 three-point shots (and still lost by seven).

"I could force the issue, get fouled and stuff like that, but if guys are open, I've got to trust these guys to knock down shots," Howard says. "That will ease up the double teams."

The other reason is that, until Nash returns, the ball is in Bryant's hands most of the time, and Bryant is playing a lot of minutes (37.4 per game), and Bryant has taken more shots than any other player in the league (about 20 per game) and, well, you may remember that Bryant and a big dominant center named Shaquille O'Neal had a disagreement or two about how the Lakers offense should be run.

Howard is asked if 10 shots in 42 minutes is enough and he measures his words carefully.

"Listen," he says, "we're going to get it together. We're going to find a way to play inside out. We're going to find a way to make sure I have the ball enough. If they leave me one on one, I'm going to have a great opportunity to score. If they double-team me, I have to trust my teammates. That's how we build chemistry, and we will get it done."

There's also the fact that Howard just isn't quite at full strength yet after having undergone back surgery. How much less than 100% is he?

"I don't know," he says. "I can't tell you. I've got a lot more progress to make. But it'll get there. I just have to stay with it, do what I can now and play as hard as I can."

Gasol hasn't played since Bryant publicly suggested to the slumping Spanish forward nine days ago: "Put your big-boy pants on."

But the Lakers say his four-game absence is not because of pouting. He has been resting knees that are sore from tendinitis.

Still considered one of the most skilled post men in the league, Gasol has been lost in the new offense. With Howard dominating space down low, the 7-foot Gasol has mostly set up on the perimeter and has been turned into a mid-range jump shooter or passer. As a result, he is averaging 13.0 points and shooting 42% from the field, both career lows.

D'Antoni had taken to benching Gasol in the fourth quarter, explaining, "We just have to be a more dynamic team. We're slow right now."

Before last season, the Lakers traded Gasol in a deal that brought them Chris Paul -- a trade that was rescinded by Commissioner David Stern. Since then, Gasol has known he was not valued as highly as he once was, and his play this season hasn't done anything to change that perception.

Yet D'Antoni remains intrigued about Nash and Gasol, both smart players and clever passers, playing together, and he insists that Gasol will be back in the starting lineup when he returns. That could be as early as tonight.

"We need to find him and Steve in there together and look at it and make a good assessment," D'Antoni says. "I envision him being really good at what he does at the four (power forward)."

For now, he's ruling out a sixth man role for Gasol.

"I'm not going to mess with Pau," he says. "He's too important to the team and he's earned it and he's too good of a player to even go there. That would be a last resort."

It was a season that started with some people predicting 60, even 70 wins, a season seemingly certain to end in the NBA Finals. Now, a fourth of the way through, it's a season of questions, and the answers seem to be a whole lot of maybes.