Current trajectory: two elimination play in games. Then we get one win against the Nuggets. 5 game series if we're lucky.
Whatever happens, however this plays out, this has been one of the absolute most baffling Lakers teams I've known, and I started following them in 1971. At times they have looked as good as the Bags, the objectively (and subjectively: to me, based on watching them) best team this year. They even went into BOS and won w/o Lebron or AD. Then there was that 2nd half against Brooklyn, at home, which was soo bad, such a horrifically we don't really wanna play performance - do you guys remember that? - and everything in between. (Jan 19: we're up 68-62 at half; Nets won the 3rd Q 38-22 and the 4th Q 30-22: jaw-droppingly dismal against a bad team, at home, when you needed to pick it up after playing really poorly...that game put us a game under .500: remember? It was so lousy...) In my opinion Darvin Ham has made enough demonstrably bad decisions that he doesn't deserve another year. I don't hate the guy. I just think he wasn't up to snuff with us and I wish him well elsewhere in the future. That we have the Transcendent 39 year old and Anthony Unibrow Davis and we're fighting for a slightly less-terrible play-in spot: I swear we're so much better than that (your response to me: apparently not, pal: scoreboard! standings! We ain't)...if we're relatively healthy (and I mean: we don't win without AD's defense) and we...what's the best word here?...I dunno: care? Set aside Ham's ideas about starting Taurean over Rui, etc: we were a very good team on D early this year, then suddenly our Offense got fantastic and our D pretty bad: why? Aside from Vando getting hurt: why? This is just one question about the chemistry of this year's team. It's baffling to me. One frequent contributor here said after a surprising win or loss - there have been a lot of those, which is mainly why I'm using the word "baffling" so many time here - "this team is bipolar." I'm paraphrasing from memory. Something like that. And who among us can disagree with that? Just when I thought we were really good, they showed me they were maybe a bottom 8 team. Then they made me look like a fool: they played like how I thought they could. A team that maybe could win a couple games in the WCF...provided it isn't against SAC or DEN, both who swept us. I mean we "get" DEN. (I hope they beat BOS). We have a really hard time accepting CowTown handing us our hats every damned time. Baffling! I can't get away from the idea of having a teammate who's been iconic for 15 years now, is already on the NBA Mt. Rushmore, is worth well over a billion dollars, and has done everything in the NBA. What part does THAT play in this being a baffling team? Long time Laker fanatics: is there a Laker team in the past that this year's team reminds you of? 'Cuz I can't think of one. Having two superstars and not going far in the playoffs is not what I mean. I mean: having two superstars and at times playing at very high levels AND very low levels, for reasons that are...???
no matter what, they can never take away from us that we were the Inaugural In Season Tournament Champions #Legends #Banners
yeah, i think baffling is fair. i thought we'd win 45-50 games, and the low end of that is still possible. but i thought it would be because lebron/AD missed 15+ games each, not because we just blew a bunch of games and couldn't handle the sacramento kings. there were probably 10 games this year where team played to the peak of what i thought was possible and a couple where they played better than that. but there were probably 30 that were just sort of embarrassing, some of them wins! and no, it's not all darvin ham. some of it is, and he needs to go, but i think this is a hard job for coaches and... it's a hard job for players, too. being the guys that can't win with lebron and AD is difficult psychologically. lebron basically never takes blame in the media. it's been that way most of his career--if not all of it. even this year, nobody is going to say anything but "what an amazing season from a 39-year-old". all failures are on...everyone else (this includes AD, tbh). it's hard to succeed when there's more of a motive to escape embarrassment than there is to achieve something, and i think the support players find themselves in that role a lot here. if lebron makes teammates better, why is virtually every one of them a better player elsewhere? he makes meh players more useful, but i think his presence has always and still does limit better players. you have to have a very special mental make up (see: reaves) to make it work, imo.
If we win our last 2 games (big if), I actually think we keep the 9 seed. Warriors have been just as mediocre with some embarrassing losses. They lose 1 of their last 3 and it’s back to the 10 spot.
Those damn Blazers need to steal this. To bad they are missing everyone but Ayton... 40/20 game incoming????????????????
Look: I know I sound nutz - you wouldn't be the first to tell me I wuz, believe me - but I can't get over the idea that, despite our lackluster (<---there are definitely some better words than that, but whatev) showing this year, a lot of teams think we were crouching down in the weeds and ready to slay come playoff time, and they don't want to see us in the postseason. If so, joke's on them, probably. We are a paper tiger this year. Or maybe not even a tiger. Paper? Absolutely. The word must be out, at the very least, that if you're spooked by the Lakers, just contest AD for a board and "accidentally" hit him in the face, preferably in the 1st Q. Then you're all good. You probably won't even get a foul called on you.
We need Pels to win at Warriors and Suns to win at Kings , doubt the 1st one will happen though ( both teams on a B2B but Pels just played CJ and Troy Murphy 40 and 45 minutes while Dray and Klay rested)
Welp surprisingly, I think the 8th seed is still possible...we absolutely need Pels to win tomorrow. If they do, I think they lock up 6th seed and then maybe they rest all of their guys in the final game vs us?
Well we want the Pelicans to beat the Warriors today, but we also want the Suns to beat the Kings. In that scenario, Phoenix would only be one game back on NOP and I think Phoenix has the tiebreaker. So NOP would still have a lot to play for in our final game, because they could still fall back to #7 with a loss
My mistake you're correct. Ideally, we want PHX to win out and get 6th seed and Pels to go 1-1 and that 1 win has to be against the Warriors tonight and their loss to be against us, and then I believe we would draw the Pels in the 7/8 matchup, which I think is probably the best matchup that we can hope for in the play-in.
