Defeated by the Pelicans last night, the Lakers sink into crisis. Bad dynamics, injuries, competition that comes back to the charge, can we imagine a scenario where LeBron James and his gang fail to qualify for the… play-in?
We didn’t wait for last night’s bad defeat to find out, but things aren’t going well in Los Angeles. The franchise has just lost nine of its last twelve games and what we see on the ground does not give special hope for the future. Swept away last night by New Orleans, LA has hit rock bottom, to the point of attracting the wrath of its own public. Too erratic, too dependent on the exploits of LeBron James, too brittle in hot moments, simply not good enough, the Lakers look nothing like a team that can target Larry O’Brien next April. Some fans may be reassured by saying that once they arrive in the Playoffs, the Angelinos will get in tune with the King and surprise everyone. Ok… but you still have to qualify. Ninth in the West, the Purple and Gold find themselves under threat from several teams and they are far from certain of ending up in the Top 10 at the end of the regular.
Let’s take a look at the situation in the rankings. The Lakers are, at the time of this writing, 2.5 wins ahead of New Orleans and Portland and 3.5 over the Spurs. Not that big of a difference. If we look at the dynamics of the moment for these four teams, we notice that the Angelinos are the least in shape! The record of each for 10 games: LA (3-7), NOLA (6-4), Blazers (4-6) and Spurs (5-5). Another element not to be zapped, the difficulty of the upcoming calendar. If we believe the site Tankathon.com, Los Angeles has the second most hardcore schedule to end the season and they will have to wrestle the Suns twice, the Warriors twice but also the Sixers, the Jazz or the Cavs. Not easy, especially when you know that Anthony Davis will only be back in a month, at the very least. Conversely, Portland has the easiest schedule for the next few weeks. As for NOLA and San Antonio, they are respectively in eleventh and thirteenth place, rather correct calendars. If two of these three teams overtake LA over the next six weeks, LeBron James and his team will watch the Play-in and the Playoffs from the couch. It is far from being done but it is also far from being impossible.
The Lakers who do not even make the play-in tournament, this is a sentence that seemed ridiculous at the start of the season when Rob Pelinka and his family were talking about returning to the NBA Finals. Today, the Angelinos seem on the edge of the abyss and it will take a step-up over the next few weeks to save what can be saved. Otherwise, we can expect to see some heads rolling in Hollywood.
Source text: Tankathon.com