Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

OG too!! Thank you lawd!

 

Oh yeah, not Siakim. OG. Both former Raptors.

 

very surprised we took even one of these last two, no matter who was available.

which team shows up in charlotte, and for the rest of the season?

if this team was here all year, we'd be in 4th.

 

I think it's time to get excited. .

Trade deadline approaching, we'll be coming off a 4-2 trip, and we have the 4th easiest schedule remaing according to Cranjis.

Time to make up some ground, get better at the trade deadline, and make a move to 6th.

It isn't ideal, but give our injuries, it's the best we could hope for, IMO.

 

Not without Cam or Vando playing (or getting back). Teams will adjust to the trap action the Lakers were running to make up for the lack of POA defense.

Teams like Nets and Dallas are going to give this team fits who have better shooter and more off the dribble guys..

Lebron engaged on D fixes a lot of regular season issues and that is the Lakers are always a threat. But as we saw in Denver series and during doldrum regular season games, need way better POA defense. My gut feels like when either Cam or Vando have been healthy the regular season record is very good

 

flirting with .500 is never an accomplishment

 

Optimism thread is optimistic

 

Ok, I'm positive that flirting with .500 is never an accomplishment....



but after the last two games, I'm OPTIMISTIC that better days lie ahead.

 

We made that harder than it needed to be but a win is a win. 4-2 road trip and we rebounded nicely to our worst losses of the year.

 

i don't know...looking ahead, we have some tough games upcoming. schedule doesn't get saturated with winnable games until the end, when we have several tanking teams amongst our last stretch.

we'll have to stay alive until then and hope to rip through that part.

 

The schedule is weird for the next couple of weeks. Two days off and then a back-to-back against the Nuggets and Pelicans. The Nuggets are chugging along just fine, only a half game out of first place. The Pelicans are Pelicans; they just beat the Raptors by 38, but a week ago they got crushed by the Thunder and Bucks. I think we win one of these two games, I'd be pretty surprised if we won both.

Then its 3 days off before another back-to-back against the Pistons and then @Utah. That Utah game is going to be tough, obviously we need to win that Pistons game. Then we hit the all-star break and come back to games @Warriors on 2/22, vs. Spurs on 2/23, @Suns on 2/25 and @Clippers on 2/28. That's a really tough 4-game stretch with the worst opponent coming on the second night of a back-to-back.

All that to say, its great the team is playing better but they'll need to keep it up. If we can get to the end of the month still a few games over .500 I'll be happy. Starting 2/29 with the Wizards we get 10/11 games at home. If this team is going to emerge as a real threat to win a few playoff series, that is when we'll have to start showing it.

 

With the hedge being if DLO is traded before the game, no idea what that does to the play of the team immediately ..... to me saying I think we're beating Denver and Malone's big mouth on Thursday. LeBron is healthier than he was in the WCF. AD is playing arguably the best basketball of his career and is healthy. DLO knows the crap he's gotten for that Denver series and has been balling on offense basically for a month (no one never has off games or parts of games over that kind of a stretch .... and he's been really good). Prince is better this season for us than Troy Brown Jr or Danny Walker were in that series. Wild cards are Rui needing to step it back up as he did in the playoffs and AR not having a cold night ... being some level of HIM. Sucks the proverbial BIG ONE not having Vando or Cam for defense and against their size, so LeBron being healthy has to go into playoff defensive mode, like AD, and still score enough plus hope no one else no shows on offense. The BIG motivator and energy provider on top of the incentive of beating Denver and Malone is the team doing it for Kobe on the day his statue is unveiled out in front with the other Lakers legends. They are wearing the Black Mamba uniforms and Danny Green isn't here to chump the winning shot in them for a loss the last time they were worn. Ooops almost forgot about Max who has been playing well both sides of the ball that we didn't have last year, and somewhat helps with Vando and Reddish out.

 

Can't stand Michael f***ing Malone. We better treat that game, like they're the C Bags. No mercy for once, humiliate them please.

 

Now that everyone can unpack and stop looking over their shoulder, expecting a trade, it's time to cut the s*** and make the run.

No more nights off. Focus in and dial it up.