Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

I was optimistic when the news broke we were getting DLO, Vando and Beasley. Never in my wildest dreams could I have predicted them to fit this well. This is the true manna from heaven Rob was talking about a few years ago.

Talent, fit, energy, great cameraderie from the get go, it's truly remarkable how the outlook of this team changed seemingly over night. I cannot even say which of the additions I like the most (even though I'm leaning strongly towards DLO), they all bring crucial value to this team.

 

This team is pretty exciting. I pray that Jeannie decides to pay the tax fees to keep all these guys. Pay it while Lebron is still playing. When he retires, she can make some adjustments. I am not sure we are going to be good enough this year to win a ring but I think we will be in the running for the next 2 years if we keep these guys. Maybe one more tweak, but this is a great mix of players.

 

fully expected a deflating loss last night and got the opposite, so that was nice.

 

Perfect fit.

 

Keeping them on the floor will be key

 

Not to be Mr. Negative but WTF happened in the second half? That was ugly, I was starting to think at one point that we were going to blow our lead and lose this game. That would have been a HUGE embarrassment.

 

it's really hard to maintain a 30+ point lead acquired in the first half. players, coaches let the foot off the gas, which i understand. also, you can't shoot that well for a whole game. we've had that happen to us a couple times this year--teams go so insane from deep at the beginning that we can't come back, but we did get a lot closer. glad to be on the right end of it for once.

 

Yeah it's always happening. It's just human. I bet the coaching staff was warning them, probably some players were saying the same but it's very rare to sustain a huge lead for the whole game. We basically started the game up by double digits. The other team also has their pride hurt and have more effort to cut the lead

Still would have been nice to keep above 20 but that's a really good problem to have right?

 

68-48 in the second half. That is almost as pathetic as the Pelicans were in the first half. We looked like crap, what I did not like was the turnovers and the disarray. We were as bad as we can be in the second half. I pray we do NOT see that in the Houston game.

 

I think we've got a solid chance of winning tonight.

It's tough to beat an NBA team by 40 which is why it so rarely happens.

Despite the sloppy play, the game was never in question. I think (or at least hope) we can carry over the overall energy from last night into tonight.

 

Or maybe not. Lol

 

god, we looked horrible. For those who are wondering exactly what AD does for us, this game was the perfect example. Those Okie boys just abused us at the rim.

 

Yeah. That was brutal.

 

the trades were made for next season, and i know folks were excited about doing something great this year, but that wasn't realistic. lebron missing the last quarter of the season was the nail in the coffin.

good news is that if we have this roster next year, and lebron and AD can just play 60 games each, we're likely a top 4/5 seed with a chance to make noise. just too much bad had happened already this year, and games like the houston game were just going to happen in any case.

 

There is no good news. These a******* play to lose. Their mentality is losers mentality. Nothing changes next year. Loser tactics never bring winning results.

 

i have no idea what that means. houston beat full-strength boston at home in their last game out. we just showed up pretty huge minus lebron in a must-win road game the night before. we lost on the road minus our two best players. it happens. most of the time.

 

Yeah. I was optimistic we could pull out of win but I can't say i'm shocked we lost (if that makes sense lol).

@abeer3 is right. You lose the majority of the games you play without your best players.

 

That said, I'm a homer and I'm always looking for some way we can win no matter how much the odds are against us.

I'm also hoping for a happy ending for this group of guys. Teams been through a lot over the last couple of seasons.

Yes, a lot has been self inflicted from management, players, etc. But still, i like a good comeback story. Particularly in this case as so many media members would have to eat crow.

So, I'll be going down with the ship as usual.

I think we will keep winning at our current pace, make the play in and slip into the playoffs if LeBron comes back.

If not, then we've at least got some juice going into next year, though the season will still ultimately be a disappointing one.