Yep. We have Denver, Minny and Sac twice. I say we win at least two more. I think Orlando wins...err...loses out. They have legitimate talent on Orlando, yet they are tanking like a rock. The ONLY explanation is they are purposely losing. I am actually more upset with them than anyone. They have 4 legitimate NBA starters and can't win. They have been told to lose.
Dumbest team in the NBA. We tried to lose and came up short... again? Gotta love these overtime wins against scrubs, i'll for sure brag about it in the summer Even the Spurs tanked on purpose to get Duncan, i guess we're bigger than that.
I'm so pissed, annoyed, depressed, down regarding the Lakers right now I didn't even want to come to this forum tonight. That's 2 overtime wins that should have been losses and have us locked into that 4th spot. But no, we had to go and "win" for meaningless pride. It doesn't matter that we weren't supposed to lose these games, the point is we COULD have, we were right there, and we blew it, to thump our chest and celebrate absolutely nothing of value. If we lose that top 5 pick I don't think I'll be able to watch draft night, it will be too depressing, too much what might have been.
Look guys we come every day on this forum bc we love our purple n gold whatever happens is meant to happen! Stop acting all gloom and doom we are the best fans in the world and the best franchise in professional sports! Losing, yes is important but so is building for the future we have a bright future! We have arguably the best combo guard of the Draft and the next Lamar odom minus the weed in julius Randle! Worst case scenario is we get 4-5th Draft pick or none and just our Houston pick but look at the bright side we are the fan base of the best franchise, so cheer up
Well said @OmarE I would hate to lose this draft pick but honestly it is not the end of the world.... far from it actually. We already have two future starters in Clarkson and Randle. It would be awesome if we can pick up a 3rd in this year's draft, but I feel it is more a luxury than a necessity.
What would you have done differently last night? What about that game was a chest thumping victory? We sat Davis, Boozer, and Lin. Young hasn't played in weeks. Kobe and Randle (and Nash and Xavier) are gone for the year. We played a D-League call up heavy minutes. We started Wes Johnson, Ryan Kelly, and Tarik Black. What about this was a chest thumper? This was the Lakers trying to lose. The Sixers are just better at it. That loss made you angry? What more could the Lakers have done to debase themselves and lose that game? They played terribly against an awful team and still won. At what point do you just say," well crap at least they're finally on board with the tank." If sitting your best players doesn't work then what more do you want them to do? Throw the ball out of bounds on purpose? Score on their own basket? I don't understand what about last night's game could upset the tankers, man. The Lakers did everything asked of them to tank and the Sixers did it better. In fact we got to see yet another clutch game from what is looking more and more like a starting NBA guard... isn't that a good thing? The draft pick could be a bust but the kid we're watching now is legitimately our future. I'm done scolding anyone, this time I'm just surprised honestly. I don't know how to tank harder than that and so I can't be upset. Not to mention seeing this kid again come through when the game was on the line.
^^^ Yeah. Last night's game was not one to get pissed about. We had Clarkson, Brown and Black playing heavy minutes. We have to put someone on the court. We can't roll out there with 3 men. We lost the tank earlier in the season with some of those February and January win streaks. Our mistake was we flipped the tank switch too late. It was painfully obvious 20 games in that the only way to salvage this season was to tank for our pick. But we continued to try and grind out wins well after other teams were in tank mode. You can't tank half a season and expect to be there at the end with the tanking elite.
I am with you on this one. I mean, I honestly think we would have had to throw the ball out of bounds like you said to lose that one. I have felt like we should let the young guys play and develop since the All Star break and if we win games with the young line up then so be it. That's pretty much what happened last night so I can't get upset about it. If folks want to be upset, it really should be at these other teams for throwing in the towel so blatantly and the league for not taking a stronger stance on it.
You know the killer might have been that three game win streak around the All-Star break. That might have been the last straw that gave us the 4th pick. Honestly back then I had no real hope of moving up anyway. I thought we were cemented at 4 (still do), but it turns out we had a shot at 3 all along. Last night though I just can't get upset either way. We got to see more continued development from our budding guard and we tried so hard to lose that game... Wes Johnson- 43 minutes Ryan Kelly- 43 minutes Wayne Ellington- 43 minutes Jabari Brown- 33 minutes Sacre played more minutes than Hill or Black. If it takes more than that to tank, I don't have the heart for it. It's not for us.
You mean what are our chances of finishing the season 5th or 6th in the standings? We're not finishing below Sacramento. Worst case scenario is finishing 5th behind Orlando, but we still hold a 1.5 game lead. Orlando's remaining 8 games: Spurs, @ Wolves, @ Bucks, Bulls, Raptors, Knicks, @ Heat, @ Nets Lakers remaining 9 games: Pelicans, Blazers, Clippers, @ Clippers, @ Nuggets, Wolves, Mavs, @ Kings, Kings I think we're safe. The Magic should win at least one or two more games and that'll give us the edge we need.
I'm not sure the Magic win another game. I said it somewhere, the Magic have a few good players. I'm talking players who would start for a lot of NBA teams. The fact that they aren't in the playoff hunt is crazy......which makes me believe they are truly trying to lose. A starting lineup that boasts Harris, Vucevic, Payton and Olidipo should not be 1-9 in their last 10.
There was that stretch where we also won 5 out of eight. It was early in the season, but we were already 3-13 at that point. We should have known the team was crap.
