Yep and Lin had some key turnovers down the stretch. Still played well enough to almost ruin us though.
With this game being a back to back, I think we lose. I can't see another real chance of a win until we play the Knicks.
1-9 in back-to-backs, Dragic wants to show us why he's worth a ridiculous max deal, and Miami is a straight up better team. We're going to lose this game, I'm almost sure of it. Other games to watch: Knicks @ Pacers Suns @ Magic Jazz @ C Bags Sixers @ OKC Nuggets @ Wolves
Nuggs at Wolves is a tough one. Am I more afraid the Nuggs will catch us than I am hopeful we can pass Minny? I'm going to say we have a better chance of catching Minny than the Nuggs do of catching us.
I fairly certain the Wolves take this one, although Denver could be riding some momentum from Shaw's departure. Ultimately this is a great match up for the Lakers because someone has to win. I still think Minnesota is a better team than their record indicates, and they can pass the Lakers if they start winning some of these close games...and the Lakers get smart about playing the young guys and not the vets
hmmm...i'll say catching minny is highly unlikely. despite getting healthy of late, they haven't been winning. i think the lakers are much more likely to slip to 5 or 6 then jump to 3, so i'm rooting for the orlandos and denvers to win all their games.
minny is 4-6 the last 10 games. If they win at that rate for the rest of the season the Lakers should get the 3rd worst record, thus securing a top 5 pick. Only problem is that minny has a tougher schedule going forward
True. We play Philly twice, Minny twice and the Knicks once. Gotta figure we'll get at least 2 wins out of that, probably 3.
Almost a disastrous night for the tank. We almost won when Philly lost, Orlando lost, and Denver goes Bickerstaff on minny.
Another hard fought loss by the Lakers, but no margins gained with all bottom 5 teams losing. Notable loss of the night goes to the Sixers, taking OKC to overtime. Great effort but never had a chance with Westbrook in BEAST mode.
There was no stopping Westbrook today. Too bad. No ground gained, except we're slightly more safe at #4 now. I am just afraid that Orlando is much better at tanking than we are. No update for tomorrow. Only two games are scheduled, nothing important. Orlando will lose most of their games in March for sure. They might win one against Boston... we'll see. Maybe they could win against Sacramento too, but I'm not putting my money on it. Our schedule for the month of March looks like this: MEM DAL DET NY (Ouch!) ATL GSW UTA PHI (ouch, ouch!) OKC MIN (must lose!) TOR BKN PHI (again? ) That sucks big time. If Byron does not start openly tanking we could win 4-5 games in that stretch. It would be a disaster.
Looking at the distribution of minutes for tonight Byron still doesn't get it. He's starting younger players (except Boozer) but giving the bulk of the minutes to their veteran counterparts off the bench. The team is in the habit of getting in trouble when Lin/Ellington/Wes/Ed/Hill are on the floor and beating up on the opponents bench, so Byron gives them MORE minutes. Not smart. Meanwhile, MIN lost one of their only winnable games in quite a while, and ORL managed to lose as well. If the Lakers want the pick the margin of error is non-existent. They can't afford to win any of the remaining 22 games left, but unfortunately going winless won't happen, especially not with Byron playing the vets. Every day it's looking more and more like we will be lucky to keep the 4th spot. Thanks a lot unwanted 3-game win streak!
^Games that they could win... The two games against Philadelphia and the one with New York. Maybe the Utah.
