When last the Lakers saw the Celtics, things were much different. Well, maybe not that much different. It was, after all, just 11 days ago. But the Celtics so thoroughly shredded L.A. on its home floor in a rematch of last year's NBA Finals -- the Celtics shot 60.3 percent and dominated the second half in a 13-point win -- that it seemed the Lakers were truly in dire straits.

It was the fourth loss in seven games for L.A. , a scary enough stretch that even low-key general manager Mitch Kupchak said perhaps it was time to consider a shakeup.

In the locker room, though, the mood was calm. Star guard Kobe Bryant, who had 41 points in the game but zero assists, said the Lakers would circle their next game against Boston to see how the Lakers have been able to bounce back from that adversity. “It's important to see how much we can improve from now ‘til then,” Bryant said. “It's a good opportunity for us to work hard and then next week when we face them in Boston , see how much we've improved.”

Well, now's the time. The Celtics and Lakers play again Thursday, this time at TD Garden in Boston . And though it's been an eventful 11 days for L.A. , the atmosphere of panic around the Lakers seemed to have waned -- for now, at least.

Talk to the Lakers, who stood 33-15 at the end of January -- four games behind last year's pace and five games behind their pace in 2008-09, seasons that both ended in championships -- and they have failed to see what all the fuss is about. Sure, they're not steamrolling through the Western Conference as expected, but they're quite sure they'll get their act together. In a way, they've been doing that, beating Houston in overtime and suffering a heartbreaking loss on a last-second tip-in to San Antonio , before starting their seven-game Grammy road trip with solid wins in New Orleans and Memphis .

Hand-wringing and fretting over this team's mid-winter standing has been raised to an art form by denizens of Lakerland over the last decade, but rarely does that worry come from the Lakers themselves. Asked, as often happens these days, whether he's concerned with the state of the Lakers, point guard Derek Fisher cocked an eyebrow and wondered, “Someone define for me what concerned is?”

Fisher then went on to explain: “We're concerned every day. That's why we go to practice, that's why we play the games, that's why we put the time in that we put in. Unless you win every single game, you're concerned. ... I don't know what is supposed to dramatically change other than incrementally doing your job on a day-to-day basis and turning things around over time. There really isn't a magic pill or a snap of the finger that's going to change things.”

But some of the things the Lakers needed to improve upon from the last time they saw Boston were obvious -- and they've already shown progress in some areas:

Kobe dominance. Too often, the Lakers fall into what center Andrew Bynum calls the “Kobe-dar” mode, in which players simply watch Bryant and fail to be active in the offense. Bryant's minutes are down to their lowest level in 13 years, but he is shooting more frequently (.576 shots per minute) than at any point in his career outside of the 2005-06 season, when the Lakers had few options. Before the Boston game, the Lakers were just 10-11 in games in which Bryant took at least 20 shots. But the balance has been much better since, as Bryant has averaged 8.0 assists, and the Lakers have won both games in which he took more than 20 shots.

Interior scoring. In correlation to Bryant's dominance of the offense is the relative passiveness of the Lakers' interior guys. That has changed in the four games since the Boston loss, when the Lakers' tandem of Gasol and Bynum tallied 23 points and 13 rebounds combined. Since then, the Lakers' center-power forward combos (Bynum missed one game) have averaged 37.3 points and 21.5 rebounds.

Defense. Laker great Jerry West opened some eyes in mid-January by publicly knocking the team's defense, and the Lakers ‘D' had shown itself to be vulnerable, especially inside. Opponents were scoring 41.8 percent of their points in the paint, which ranked 18th in the league, and the defense was giving up 14.06 percent of its points allowed on second-chance points. But lately, the Lakers have tightened things up. L.A. has outscored its last four opponents in the paint, by a margin of 8.0 points per game. And they've held foes to just 43.3 percent shooting in that span.

So, sure, the Lakers have shown some weaknesses and problems throughout the course of the year. But ESPN analyst and former coach Jeff Van Gundy provides some perspective: “Every team should have their problems. They haven't played as well as they've liked. But look at their record, and that was with a major injury to Bynum. I actually think they've done a good job to be where they are. And you know once they engage, once they get kicked into gear, they're going to be the same old Lakers.”

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