The Lakers are in a state of disbelief right now. LeBron joins the organization preaching a certain level of patience, only to have every prospect on the roster put on the trade block, in an effort to land Anthony Davis. What happened next was fairly easy to predict.
While the young Lakers' core played at a reasonably competitive clip without LeBron in the lineup for a pretty long stretch, with him back in the lineup, they seem to have plummeted even further, to the point where they can't even beat a dysfunctional Phoenix Suns' team short on experience and ideas.
https://twitter.com/_/status/1102065127572987904
Last night's 118-109 loss to the Suns, stacks up with the lowest of lows this roster has experienced this season, with pretty much every member of the team chiming in as a result. Where do I start?
The banalest comments to emerge from the clubhouse came from the coach itself, whose employment status is believed to be hanging by a single thread. "We need to be better," Luke Walton said after the game. "We need to be a lot better."
In response to his coach's validation of faith in the team, reserve guard Josh Hart told the media that "being better" constitutes solidifying trust throughout the locker room. “I mean, we have to,” Hart said. “If we want to get to the goal that we’ve set for ourselves in the season, we have to believe in each other. We have to believe. We have to trust each other."
The loss drops the Lakers to 30-33, 4½ games short of the 8th and final playoff spot in the West, currently occupied by their roommates the Los Angeles Clippers. With so much pressure on their heads, the Lakers' roster has been unable to get it into gear, whilst the Clippers whose alleviated long term vision, has them playing better basketball RIGHT NOW. Believe it or not, the Lakers are a ridiculous -900 odds-on favorite to miss the playoffs, based on the latest quote from the bookkeepers in Vegas.
