Skip to main content

The LA Lakers are now in real danger of missing the postseason




Life without Anthony Davis hasn’t been kind to the LA Lakers, and it certainly didn’t get any better as they faced his old team in a must-win game that had huge implications on playoff seeding. The Lakers, who were in the ninth spot with a 31-43 record, have now fallen to tenth place as the Pelicans (32-43) have overtaken them. The loss puts the Lakers’ record to 3-7 over their last ten games, and they’re now within striking distance of the San Antonio Spurs, who are only a game behind them with a 30-44 record. To make things worse, the Pelicans won the season series today, because even though they still have a game left against LA, they’ve already won two out of three total meetings.


The Lakers crumbled in the second half against the Pelicans, after starting off promisingly. They even had a 23-point lead at one point, largely behind LeBron James and his 39 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and a block. However, his shooting line of 14-27 may look good at first, but he was 2 of 8 from the field in the fourth quarter. He looked like he ran out of gas, and didn’t get that much help. Malik Monk contributed 23 points off the bench, while Russell Westbrook had 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists. No one else scored more than eight points.


Speaking of bench players, Trey Murphy had his best game in a Pelicans uniform when it mattered most. He scored all of his 21 points in the second half, outdoing the Lakers’ bench in that span.


It wasn’t just the Lakers collapsing, though. The Pelicans did a great job of adjusting in the second half, and kept up great defensive pressure in the fourth quarter. They didn’t wilt under pressure and kept chipping at the lead until they found themselves in a position to win. Five New Orleans players scored 16 points or more, and were led by Brandon Ingram’s 27 points, seven rebounds, and five assists.


One silver lining for the Lakers is Anthony Davis’ impending return, with an early April comeback being speculated. The problem is, he may still need to get back into game shape, and the Lakers have a murderous schedule to close out the season.


Anthony Davis is reportedly targeting the first week of April for his return. 👀



LA will face the following teams in their final eight games of the season:


  • Dallas Mavericks
  • Utah Jazz
  • New Orleans Pelicans
  • Denver Nuggets (twice)
  • Phoenix Suns
  • Golden State Warriors
  • Oklahoma City

That is not an easy schedule, even if Davis comes back at full strength right away. There’s also the added wrinkle of the Lakers and Spurs facing the Warriors in back-to-back games, so we don’t know if Steve Kerr will sit his starters against LA or against San Antonio. The Spurs also have a slightly easier remaining schedule overall.


With all to play for, it’s going to be a tense time for Lakers fans until the final game of the season. It’s now a dangerous time for the Lakers, especially with the way their roster is constructed. This previous tweet from LeBron James hasn’t aged well, because the doubters are currently being proven correct.



THEY BLEW A 20 POINT LEAD TO TREY MURPHY IN THE BIGGEST GAME OF THE YEAR EVERYONE POINT AND LAUGH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA



Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Klay Thompson to sit out Warriors preseason games in Japan as Kerr says he needs more time to ramp-up

  Klay Thompson may have returned healthy to the Golden State Warriors last season, but the scars from his two missed seasons are still quite visible. The Warriors played their first of two preseason games against the Washington Wizards on Friday and will play another on Sunday, but Warriors coach Steve Kerr said that Thompson will not be playing at all during the trip to Japan. "Just feel more comfortable giving him a little more of a ramp up," Kerr said before Friday's victory over Washington. "He's just not quite ready to play at this point just based on where, you know, we're so early in camp. We just want to be safe and make sure he gets a good ramp-up before he plays in games." Typically, so little time to ramp up wouldn't be a problem for a veteran in a preseason context. The games tend to be so low-impact and demand so few minutes out of a team's best players that they can safely jog through them. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green played 1...
Post a Comment
Read more

Shaquille O'Neal says Dennis Rodman was his worst teammate: 'He was a great player, but he made it hard'

  Shaquille O'Neal played for six franchises over a 20-year NBA career. That's a lot of teammates. Speaking on The Big Podcast with Shaq, the four-time champion and Hall of Famer revealed which one of those teammates was the worst.  "Worst teammate? Dennis Rodman," O'Neal said. "He was a great player, but he made it hard. Like when you try to corral the guys together and the people above you [are] letting this one guy do whatever he wants. So we had to be there an hour before the game. He'd come in fifteen minutes before the game eating chicken and rice. While the coaches are talking, he would jump in the shower. Cold shower. Come and give you 15-20 rebounds." O'Neal played with some characters in his time. We know about his beef with Kobe Bryant, who we know wasn't always the easiest teammate to get along with, though Shaq has long expressed regret over the way he and Bryant handled their relationship as young superstars, and eventually, he ...
Post a Comment
Read more

LeBron James says he has 'no relationship' with Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

  It's not a matter of if LeBron James passes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the No. 1 spot on the NBA's all-time scoring list, it's when. James sits just 1,326 points away from passing the Hall of Famer and Los Angeles Lakers legend, a milestone that should happen at some point this season given James is still performing at peak levels and is coming off a year in which he averaged over 30 points a night. If he averages around the same amount of points as he did a season ago for the Lakers, James could break the record somewhere in the middle of the season, assuming he stays healthy. It's a highly anticipated moment heading into the season, but in regards to LeBron's thoughts about and his relationship with Abdul-Jabbar, he didn't have much to say on the matter. Following the Lakers first preseason game Monday night, a reporter asked James what his thoughts were on the Lakers legend and if the two had any relationship, to which LeBron gave a very short answer. "No...
Post a Comment
Read more