WMC 24-25: Seasonal Highs And Lows!

It's very easy to draft years later

 

Can somebody recap how this season is going. I haven’t watched any games or highlights. Sounds like AD is playing like mvp level like 2020

 

Wow. It's been a loooong time since I woke up in the middle of the night with flashbacks to a very very lousy bad no-good Lakers loss. But I did last night. They are mentally SOFT. There's no Viagra for this problem. You're up 13 against the C-Bags at home, and you have them on a btb. There's only 3:40 left. What happens?

I can only describe it as team-wide mental "shrinkage", to borrow from Seinfeld. The process of another come-from-ahead loss (to our mortal enemies!) begins: stale offensive sets. Lebron and AD on too many mins, just want the game to end NOW, they're gassed. Lebron spends a million on his body every year, but in the last 3 mins and then OT, I'm thinking: try $2 million. Then again: Father Time. The 2nd law of Thermodynamics. The team stands around, he dribbles to around 4 on the shot clock, jacks up a brick of the 3, C-Bags rebound and Lakers don't get back: quick two for them. Why was all this so predictable? It's only December 13th, fer crissakes!

Some NBA stat head posted last night, as I fought off heading for the bar, that so far this year, four times has a team been up double-digits in the 4th and lost. Of the four games, we've lost two of those. Full-on shrinkage.

Not getting back on D. Leaving Grant Williams alone at the arc, no one in the same area code to guard him: 3s. Just lazy closeouts, stupid ball-handling, shot selection so bad it really does look like, all along, they came back from being down 81-61 to taking a 13 point lead, and were AFRAID they might lose. Come-from-ahead. Shrinkage, mentally. Arguably, AD being near perfect from the line all night but then bricking FTs when the game is on the line? Hate to say it: it tells me a bit too much about him. We could've won that game in PHI if he hits FTs in crunch. He bricks TWO of TWO last night against the C-Bags.

We do have some guys not named James/Davis/Westbrook who I think we can trust to make shots, but I'm not sure that trust is there, late, when time's winding down.

If there was ONE play that illustrated this year's team so far, it would need someone to provide context for an outsider to understand, but it's fresh in our memory now and is haunting, at least for me: the Lakers have ZERO killer instinct, so when they are well underway with their mental shrinkage, their we cannot have nice things wuss-out, the lead evaporating by the second because they're AHEAD and still afraid of losing? Marcus Smart steals the lazy, brain-dead inbounds pass and lays it in for another 2 to accelerate the evaporation process. That play, at that moment, was so bad...I...I remember George Carlin had a bit: "a fart so bad it could end a marriage." That's what that play was.

Finally: there was one player on the floor last night who has Mamba Mentality. Too bad his name is Jayson Tatum.

This is the Whine/Moan/Complain thread and I've just put in my 4 cents. Back to you guys.

 

Sorry to harp on so much, guys, but just ignore me for now; this is cathartic, and I'm damaged. Today I'm reminding myself I have loved ones, a safe, warm place to sleep, food, etc. That loss to the C-Bags just...maybe I need to step away for awhile, I dunno...

From Plaschke's write-up in the LA Times:
>Anthony Davis was brilliant with 37 points with 12 rebounds, but he played the entire second half and overtime, and eventually lost his legs and missed two free throws with 28 seconds left that could have clinched it. Afterward he sat despondently in front of his locker with his head in his hands in a pose that spoke for a season.

>“Make two free throws, go up four, different ball game,” Davis said softly. “To me, the rest doesn’t matter. Had a chance to ice the game and missed both.”<

Plaschke was being considerate by not saying, "Yea, you could've iced it a couple games ago in Philly by hitting FTs, too."

At least AD admits it. Not anything Russ would do.

Look: I love AD. His skills are at times, breath-taking. Mad skillz. Sweet guy. Props up the A, etc. But let's just be clear: he's glaringly not even close to having the mentality of that guy we had who wore numbers 8 and 24. Remember when he tore his achilles in a barn-burner as the GSW were an up-and-comer? Very late in the game, crunch, he tears his achilles...then makes both free throws before hobbling to the locker room to begin a long period of surgery, rehab.

 

better individual stats from the big 2, same losing results

 

i could see why with gay comp but tatum looked way more fuild than BI, BI game looks awkward even tho now hes an all-star

 

Top 3 team in the west

 

Another poorly constructed team by Rob.
I’m sick of the excuses- I’ve heard them all before.
Wasted season after AD finally gets his mojo back.
At least Jeanie is happy because the brand is still making plenty of money.

 

AD's back to top-5/10 nba player, lebron is now out of the top 10 and has sort of largely given up on defense. some unusually terrible shooting cost a couple games early, and we've choked away 4 more largely due to playing westbrook in crunch time. some poorly-timed injuries have also hurt. without that stuff, we're probably sitting in 6th/7th place right now, which is about where i would have placed us in a best-case scenario in the preseason.

however, other teams can also tell such stories. if AD and lebron don't miss extended time, we should get in the play-in. after that, who knows. the west is about as weak as i've ever seen it. we won't come out of it, but i can't say who will, either. phx is a mess; gs is hungover and relying on a second consecutive healthy curry playoff run at age 35. NO and memphis are still green.

we could make a trade and be a team to worry about, imo.

 

We, as Laker fans, desire this as well.

 

all i remember is that nobody could talk about anything but the clippers loss for the entire season. maybe even after we won a ring!

some things never change.

 

Pelicans just reupped their subscription for the the Wemby Watch. Yay.

 

yeah, i still think teams will out tank us to get the really high odds. but we went from giving them a pick in the 10-15 range to one in the 5-7 range with that injury. yikes.

 

still think the conspiracy against the fans angle is hilariously dumb.