Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

I don't like the "moral victory" thing but it is exactly what I thought after this game because realistically the C's should of beat the breaks off us with how we came into the game, who we were missing and the level of hurt the players who were playing had to deal with.

Boston had both Tatum and Brown pretty much cooking. Those dudes are just really F'n good. They had a lot go there way and the 3rd qtr we couldn't hit anything to save our lives. BUT, we got it from 20+ down to 4 (a couple times) and the guys fought every inch of the game. Years past we would of had some fake comeback and just rolled over. This team is different and they are putting teams on notice that it's gonna be a damn fight. I love that.

I think its a completely different game if we had Hayes or Rui. Yes, they can say the same about Porzingis I know. Either way, I don't think they left feeling great after that win.

 

How elated would you all be if we won it all this year?

I don’t think anything comes close to that type of feeling (for everyone involved) if the Lakers can pull off a magical season.

Besides injuries, what other impediments do you foresee us losing a 7 game series?

I want to be as realistic as possible.

It’s so hard when they show this 8 game win streak, beat Denver handily in Denver last month, hard-fought OT win against NYK, and shades of greatness during games.

Then you have the losses that make you scratch your head and wonder where THAT Laker team was in a horrible loss (like BKN tonight).

 

We're probably not quite as good as our best moments, and nor are we are bad as our worst moments. Still a work in progress. Health and continuity are big for any contender, but even more so for a team thrown together with so few games under their belt as a unit.

If we pull off the impossible this year, that would definitely be pretty cool.

 

Optimism, my best cousin and his wife got a trip to LA (bro is a big time Lakers fan). He got the Spurs tickets, ha has some Nuggets tickets, got to answer few questions before the game, showed off his Kobe tat to the camera (maybe we'll find a video of that), they had a BLAST... and great seats Happy for my man

 

Was that shot above taken by them from where they sat?

 

Lucky

 

Yup, 4th row seats

 

Gonna get blocked by my friends and family if we win it all.

 

I know that NHL ,but Kings just destroyed Boston Bruins 7-2

 

Any time a team from ****** loses is a good day.

 

This

 

So here's the good news



We're only 14-16 against the East but 30-13 against the West.


Both of those stats are positives heading into the post season

 

I am going to guess it's probably true for "NBA History" as well. 20 pt and 5 (almost 6) ast for 3 players? Nah.

Yep.

If the following list someone compiled of teams having 3 20pt scorers is correct, never have been done.

And if you judget by the total AVG for the 3 --> 22.2 apg, noone has done even close to that either for the 20pt x 3 teams.

In fact, I went and checked all the usual suspects for these types of feats. Wilt, Kareem, Big O, MJ, Kobe, West, etc.

So the closest are:

1969 Wilt, Elgin, West with 20.5/4.5, 24.8/5.4, 25.9/6.9
1970 Wilt, Elgin, West with 27.3/4.1, 24/5.4, 31.2/7.5

----

Now, there are might be teams I forget and since Luka hasn't played the entire season it is a little "...eh" (and if we accept it, there might be some other mid-season trades that impact the above)...

But still... quite amazing.

 

We need to go 6-2 over our last 8, and I believe this SHOULD happen but knowing the Lakers...they'll make it hard on themselves and remain in the 4th seed.

HOU - W
GSW - W
NOP (2nd night of b2b) - W
@OKC - L
@OKC - L
@DAL (2nd night of b2b) - W
HOU - W
@POR - W

Lakers - Final Predicted Record: 51-31

4 home, 4 away. We absolutely have to win all of our remaining home games, esp given that 2 of them are against HOU, and 1 of them is against GSW (they're right behind us and have a slightly easier schedule than us). Let's assume we lose both at OKC if they're playing their full team (which looks likely given that CLE owns the tiebreaker as of now due to better conf record)...we absolutely have to beat Dallas on the road and Portland as well to get this 6-2 record. Also, if we beat HOU 2x, we'll own the tiebreakers against literally every team in the western conference playoff picture except the Thunder lol. Oh, and look at HOU, DEN and MEM remaining schedules:

Houston - Current Record: 48-26

@PHX - W
@LAL (2nd night of b2b) - L
UTA - W
OKC - L
@GSW - L
@LAC - L
@LAL - L
DEN - W

Houston - Final Predicted Record: 51-31

Denver - Current Record - 47-28

MIN - L
SAS (2nd night of b2b) - W
@GSW - L
IND - W
@SAC - W
MEM - W
@HOU - L

Denver - Final Predicted Record - 51-31

Memphis - Current Record - 44-30

BOS - L
GSW (2nd night of b2b) - L
@MIA - W
@DET - L
@CHA - W
MIN - W
@DEN (2nd night of b2b) - L
DAL - W

Memphis - Final Predicted Record - 48-34

 

Let's further break down GSW, MIN and LAC schedules and predict their records:

Golden State - Current Record: 42-31, Conf Record: 23-20

@SAS - W
@MEM - W
@LAL - L
DEN (2nd night of b2b) - W
HOU - W
@PHX - L
SAS - W
@POR - W
LAC - L

Golden State - Final Predicted Record - 48-34, Conf Record: 29-23 vs MEM Conf Record of 29-23

Minnesota - Current Record: 42-32

DET - W
@DEN - W
@BKN - W
@PHI - W
@MIL - W
@MEM - L
BKN (2nd night of b2b) - W
UTA - W

Minnesota - Final Predicted Record - 49-33


Clippers - Current Record: 42-31

@CLE - L
@ORL (2nd night of b2b) - L
NOP - W
DAL - W
DAL (2nd night of b2b) - W
SAS - W
HOU (2nd night of b2b) - W
@SAC - W
@GSW - W

Clippers - Final Predicted Record - 49-33




Final Predicted Western Conference Standings:

1. OKC - 69-13
2. LAL - 51-31 (will own tiebreaker over HOU and DEN)
3. HOU - 51-31 (will own tiebreaker if they beat DEN in last game)
4. DEN - 51-31
5. MIN - 49-33 (owns tiebreaker over LAC)
6. LAC - 49-33
7. MEM - 48-34 (will own tiebreaker due to better division record)
8. GSW - 48-34
9. DAL - 40-42
10. PHX - 39-43

 

lol, those schedules don't make me optimistic. ours is the toughest by a good sight, imo.

if we can go 5-3, i think we hold on to a top-6 seed, but 3-5 is what i would predict, and that could put us all the way down to the play-in given how easy everyone else's schedule is. those injuries plus the loss of interest that followed...ouch.

anyway, optimism...we beat memphis on the road, which is nice.

 

The schedule is BS. Let chat gpt do it from now on, it will come out with a fair and sane solution for all 30 teams.

 

I understand that NBA and anything can happen ,but Nuggets own GSW with any roster more than it was Pimple's LAKERS , They are like 10-0