Pick up a copy of TV Guide or peep that commercial of Shaquille O'Neal in Santa garb and the question that comes to mind sure isn't, "How big is your chimney?"

The better question: How long ago did they shoot that spot to get Shaq to smile?

Snarling Shaq is the one you'll be getting this Christmas, flanked by a group of Los Angeles Lakers that can scarcely remember what festive feels like. They are desperate. They are ashamed. They are an unfathomable 11-18 and about to go chin-to-chin with the team that troubles them most.

	It'll take more than one game for the Lakers to work out their problems.

"Right now," said team spokesman Rick Fox, "we're acting like an old married couple that's tired of being with each other. And that's dangerous, because not until you see someone else holding the trophy you've held for three years do you get mad. And at that point, it's too late.

"It's tough for us to play anybody right now. Teams are feeding off what they're reading and what they're seeing from us. We've been our own worst enemy this year in that we've let the things we needed to deal with behind closed doors get out in the public. That has given our opponents a lot of confidence."

It would be typical Lakers for L.A. to snatch some of that belief back in Wednesday's long-awaited holiday showcase against the Sacramento Kings. It would be especially typical of the Lakers to do so when a Kings rout is the more widely held expectation.

Trouble is, the Lakers don't remember typical any more than they recall how it feels to be festive. Not even Fox, who has supplanted Phil Jackson as the Lakers' most ardent Kings-basher, is suggesting that one night of brilliance against their fiercest rivals can shake L.A. out of its malaise.

The Lakers have already played (and won) the game that was supposed to do that, hauling themselves from 27 points down in the fourth quarter to overturn Dallas on Dec. 6. That's how they know that it's what happens after Wednesday, actually, that will determine if the thrice-defending champions will start resembling a team capable of winning four consecutive titles for the first time since Boston won eight straight from 1959 to 1966.

As if that wasn't enough history to surmount, the Lakers will be pleased to hear that there isn't a single team in NBA annals to win a championship after sporting a sub-.500 record on Santa's Day.

"Hopefully, it'll be a good thing to play the Kings," Lakers guard Derek Fisher said. "It'll stir up emotions that we haven't seen or that haven't been there on a consistent basis. Hopefully, it's the beginning of an opportunity for us to wake up. But we've said that before. It's not that we aren't taking (the regular season) seriously or that we don't want to win. It's just that we haven't been able to put it together mentally."

It's more than that, of course, and by now you know most of the woes. Shaq and Kobe Bryant aren't playing at full strength, which makes their numbers even more impressive but leaves them insufficiently dynamic to open up holes for the supporting cast. O'Neal, especially, isn't spinning and moving freely yet and looks slow to react to the ball at both ends.

That supporting cast, meanwhile, has thinned with each passing season while growing older and slower. Outside of Brian Shaw, there isn't a feared shooter among them -- because Tracy Murray, this year's Mitch Richmond, doesn't play enough defense to stay on the floor. Team defense, further, has declined dramatically, and defense is the rarely credited backbone of L.A.'s three title teams. The Lakers rank in the NBA's bottom third in points per game allowed (97.1) and a lowly 14th in opponent field-goal percentage (43.4).

With the Kings in town, for 48 minutes, adrenaline can camouflage all of that -- even the in-house and through-the-media bickering Fox alluded to that only made the mood more bleak. The Lakers understand that, too. They realize the better gauge will be Saturday at Denver. Or Sunday's home rematch with the Raptors, after the injury-ravaged Canadians nearly toppled the champs. The first games of the new year are a home-and-home with surprising Phoenix. No matter what happens against the Kings, the Lakers need to string together a spurt against teams like that.

	“	We talk. Talking is something we've never shied away from as a group. It's going out and doing what we talked about, not being satisfied with three championships. ”
		— Rick Fox

"We talk," Fox said. "Talking is something we've never shied away from as a group. It's going out and doing what we talked about, not being satisfied with three championships.

"We've been impatient with each other, and maybe too patient waiting for what we expect to be the natural turnaround. That's not assured. You have go out and do that. The three championships we own, that has nothing to do with this year.

"Everyone has been making changes to compete against us. Everyone is making changes in their attitude. They've gotten individually better, they've gotten angrier, they've gotten less and less respectful because they'd like to dethrone us. We're performing and playing as though yesterday is supposed to mean something today, but it doesn't. We still have those three rings. They can't take those away. But I'd like to win another one."

Leave it to the dagger-throwing Robert Horry to sum up the Lakers' plight in even more direct terms.

So, Robert, did you ever think the Lakers could be this miserable at Christmas?

"Nope."

Did you think the comeback against the Mavericks would turn things around?

"Nope."

You can guess what he thinks about one home win over the Kings.

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.