NBA
The Lakers face the greatest fiasco in history
LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers are fast moving up to 10th place in the West, who should count themselves lucky that the Blazers disbanded their roster, preferring to build it from scratch.
When they took whoever was available last summer and put three players in each position to capture the championship, analysts and betting companies considered them one of the top two favorites for the title. Along with the Brooklyn Nets. Now, 20 games from the end of the regular season, the Lakers are in for the biggest fiasco in NBA history as they’re ranked 9th in the Western Conference, pressured by the hot New Orleans Pelicans and, if there’s no surprise, they need 2/2 in the play-in tournament to make the playoffs. With a home disadvantage against last year’s finalist Phoenix Suns.
The Los Angeles team currently has a 27-35 record (18-16 home and 9-19 away), has a poor record against opponents in the same area (15-23), Anthony Davis is out with another injury Russell Westbrook, a ghost of himself, has a thousand problems and no solution on the horizon as LeBron James hits the home stretch of his career and is likely past his productive age.
The Pelicans, just behind them 27-36, have four wins in four games after the break for the 2022 NBA All-Star Weekend on an average 26.8 point difference. The CJ McCollum takeover got them fired, and if there was another team in really good shape, the Lakers would be out of the top ten. The 11th Blazers have emptied their roster, the 12th Spurs aren’t at playoff level, so they can feel a little lucky in Los Angeles that they’ve decided in Portland to rebuild with a Western elite vision for years to come .
This is followed by games with the Warriors (home), the Spurs (away), the Rockets (away), the Wizards (home), the Suns (away), the Timberwolves (away), the Raptors (away), with the Wizards ( out), the Cavaliers (out), the Sixers (out), the Pelicans (out), the Mavericks (out) and the Jazz (out) by the end of the month. A show of tremendous difficulty for Frank Vogel’s team, who don’t know when they’ll have Anthony Davis on their lineup, plays gross basketball, more concerned with public displeasure and less with their opponents.
I am a sports writer and journalist who has written for various online publications including Sportish. I’m originally from the UK but currently live in Toronto, Canada. I’m also an author on Sportish and have written several articles on a variety of sports-related topics.