Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

the illness/injury striking the middle of the road trip hurt. think we could have taken one of those games otherwise. i expected a loss at philly on a friday night nationally televised game. not the way it happened, but a loss nonetheless.

if we get the det game, we'll be pretty close to where i was expecting after the 2-10 start. just need to keep winning at a 60% rate for a while and hope for a trade or two.

 

Despite a lot of injuries/illness, we went .500 on this 6-game road trip. No doubt healthy we went 5-6. A set back, but that is this team, we have to deal with nick-nack injury/illnesses because that is our 2 main guys. I still say we are .500 by the New Years which is a tough billing, lots of good teams ahead. 6 roadies, 4 home games.

 

yeah, 3-3 given the circumstances is good. i think we'd have taken one of the middle games with everyone available, too.

i think we'll be a couple games under .500 on new year's day, which isn't great, but is a far cry from where the doomsayers had us when we were 2-10.

 

3 days to go

 

oh man, remind me to stay far away from this place when the clock strikes midnight on 12/16 and nothing's happened.

 

3-3 on this road trip while losing our guys in the middle of it is great. I also think we'd have gotten to 4-2 without the setbacks.

If the team can maintain this and we can swing a trade then we've got a shot at the playoffs with the way AD is playing.

 

helps that lots of teams in the west are bunched up within a few games of .500. we're currently only 3 games out of the 6th spot. the 5 and 6 spots are occupied by sacramento and portland. utah's also still ahead of us. we probably won't jump everyone and get into 6th, but that 7/8 spot is definitely within range even after the horrible start.

 

Optimism thread, so I guess Imma put this here: we got the damned C-Bags in about 45 mins as I write this. And I'm nervous. Have been since Hector was a pup.
We have 'em on a btb, too: Clips beat 'em by 20 last night; GSW made 'em look beatable two days before that. Double Tatum; get hands in Jaylen's face when he shoots. Play some D! (Clips held 'em to 93.)

Yea, the trade deadline's coming up, we're all thinking about that, too. But for me - and a few of y'all, I know it - playing the C-Bags is never "just another game." Even if we look like a play-in team again, so far.
#BeatBOS
#NervoustimeinCrypto
#optimismthread

 

This team has beaten the Bucks and was literally FTs away from beating Philly and Celts. They take the other teams best shots as every team puts out their best against the Lakers (Middleton, Allen, etc,,).

They found good rotation players in Reaves, Walker, Brown. The league is weak. If you just get league average or god forbis even good player to replace Bev's, Nunn, Schroeder minutes and this team can make a long playoff run. They're going too to toe with teams which are supposed to the best despite being handicapped by a rookie coach and a limited roster

 

There is a solid team in there some where. Ham just has to be smarter with his rotations. Late game offense on the other hand.. The issue always has been the halfcourt offense for the Lakers is AD/Bron PnR........ and that's it, because the rest of the roster is so poor. You can't spam that every time in every game, because eventually you're gonna run into the a team (like the C Bags) who have wings/bigs who can stay with both and force you to try to kick it to Russ or Troy Brown Jr.

Joe Mazzulla laid it out when he was talking to the team during TO... Transition points, and paint points. That's what the Lakers are, if you stop both you stop the Lakers

and late in games transition points almost grind to a halt if you take care of the ball. Teams also defend the paint extremely hard down the stretch and the Lakers have shown they have nothing to fall back on.

 

Yep team needs shooting. That Indiana trade would make this a very very good team IMO because of this

 

we've played fairly well since the 2-10 start (and weren't even THAT bad during that stretch). really frustrating the way we've given some games away, but last year's team had already quit by now, imo.

just need to get the bev/nunn move done and hope we can build some continuity and stay healthy. we'll jump a few spots if those things happen, then we'll see if the young teams at the top of the standings can handle being the favorites against lebron and AD in a playoff series.

 

We just beat Milwaukee and lost in OT with the C Bags. This team can go 7-0, we can beat anyone playing like this.
We are on the right track and barring injuries, we are in the play-in by January with an eye on top 6

 

We just beat Milwaukee and almost beat Boston.
We just need a few moves to come out the west.

I see it; don't you guys? We could be over .500 if we would have won these games. I could also be significantly richer if I would have sold these stocks 18 months ago.

And then I look at the standings. Top 3 team in the west!

 

well, you said we'd be 4-16. you should be pretty optimistic right now.

 

The Lakers have done the hardest thing in the sport have 2 guys who you can count to be the best player in multiple finals game.
They have found some decent roleplayers
I get waiting to maximize trade value

What I don't get is holding on two first rounders and losing a chance at a Finals appearance.

 

My optimism is since not being able to see the C Bags game, nor wanting to after following it on Game Time and knowing the result, nor being able to get on LD much in past 4 days ..... I am finally caught up and was finally able to VENT about how pissed off I have become at Ham for his idiotic decision to go away from Brown (or even better ... Reaves) in the starting lineup, to instead continue to choose Beverly over either of them (as well really putting a crimp into Walker's free flowing game that we had with Brown in there even if Bev was starting) and as well his idiotic midget ball lineup with Bev, Schroder and Russ. Good lord!! I feel better now.

 

Last year at this date they were 16-13 after beating the Mavs in OT. After that game, everything fell apart: they went 1-6 over the next 7, and by Jan 15th - that atrocious game in Denver, where no one played D, no one cared and there were reports of very bad vibes on the trip there as they lost 133-95 and it wasn't even THAT close - that's when the nightmare truly started. If a Laker fan hadn't seen they'd given up after that game in Denver, they were clueless Laker fans.