Despite a suspense-filled win over the Celtics to snap a 6-game losing streak, it is becoming increasingly clear the Lakers will not be in the playoff hunt – so why bother?
After a turmoil-filled week for the Los Angeles Lakers, they finally ended their 6-game losing streak with a good 4th quarter effort to beat the rival Celtics.
Years ago this would have been the game of the night, but both teams sit at the bottom of their conferences – waiting to see who gets the best draft pick. Pau Gasol had a great game on Friday in Boston with 24 points, 13 rebounds, and 6 assists, further proving why the Lakers are better off with him.
Chances are Gasol will be gone soon with the Lakers needing salary to go after big free agent for next season. With Kobe Bryant still not ready, and the Lakers unable to beat anyone who isn’t in the bottom of their division, it looks like they won’t rush him back just yet. The main factor with Kobe back – he would not want to lose so tanking the season for a draft pick is not on his mind, but most likely on head coach Mike D’Antoni’s.
The likelihood of the Lakers making an 8th seed is pretty slim – chances are they would get swept out of the 1st round like the past two years. They should sideline Kobe as much as possible. Give him some playing time here and there until the end of the season so he isn’t rusty for next season.
D’Antoni is looking to be replaced in the offseason after alienating the fans in interviews and not playing key acquisitions from last offseason. The highlights from this season continue to be Nick Young and Jodie Meeks who are 16.4 and 14 points per game. Kobe has only played 6 games so far. Gasol leads the team in rebounds with 9.8 per game and Jodie leads in steals with 1.2 per game.
There are many possibilities with this team and the youth looks promising, but the main problems seem to be structure of the team. It’s a mismatch of veterans that don’t lead and younger guys who have no heart and more apathy. The perfect example of this comes earlier this week when Young was clotheslined in the loss to the Suns. It was a flagrant foul that lead to Young pushing and shoving then eventually swinging his arms as if to hit another Suns player during the altercation. Young later went on to say in the post game:
“What I’m mad about is it was 1-on-5…I felt like if someone would have gotten in the middle of everything it wouldn’t have escalated as much,” Young told ESPN Los Angeles. “I felt bad for Dragic. He was right there. I didn’t throw (a) punch. I was trying to shove people out of my way. I was getting pushed further back. It was more trying to get out.”
He basically called out his teammates for not stepping in and he was dead right with that conclusion. Veteran leaders like Kobe would have kept Young in check and prevented him from getting ejected which lead to an 11-2 Suns run and eventually losing the game. They just don’t look a like a team that cares about what happens to one another. Maybe they will find out what that is like in the second half of the season or they will fall even further into the depths of the worst in the NBA.
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