For something we said that the Lakers had not yet hit rock bottom. And now it has become clearer, although it would be daring to think that this is the worst thing that we are going to see between now and the end of the season.. Without meaning or direction, the Shame Team has no sense of honor. They wander around the court letting the minutes go by, wishing the game was over to do things that, at the moment, they consider more important, they pass the card through the entrance to sign in like who goes to work just to fulfill and gets carried away until the horn sounds signaling the end of the match. They can’t, they don’t want to or nothing. The team of wise veterans was never such and quickly became one of older people, vain for no reason, who now don’t even talk about their past, something they did before to avoid talking about the embarrassment of the present.
The Lakers lost 28 points to the Pelicans, that team that was worth nothing last year or at the beginning of this one but is 2.5 wins away from the Angelenos, ninth but with real possibilities, now yes, of also staying without play-in. Something that would be almost a blessing, since nobody believes that this team can beat anyone in the playoffs, or even recover that previous one invented by the NBA in the coronavirus and that nobody wants to play. Now neither do the Angelenos, in a feeling that is not motivated by the accumulated fatigue facing the final phase, but rather by not prolonging an eternal torture, a monumental crisis that will turn the entity upside down this summer and we are not even talking about 2023year in which LeBron James will be a free agent.
The king He has once again been one of the protagonists of the night, but this time for nothing that has to do with sports performance. The forward, in a bad pass made in the third period, was booed by the Lakers fanswho has had enough of his figure, his controversies and, above all, the words he addressed to the franchise in the All Star, with which he questioned Jeannie Buss, Rob Pelinka (without mentioning them directly, of course) and left his future open. Too much for a fan, the Angelina, who understands basketball from her usual paraphernalia and who is tired of an absolutely generational player who, however, was also the one who asked for Russell Westbrook and now denies him. LeBron, who badly turned his back on his team on All-Star Weekend, now suffers the consequences of his actions in an unprecedented season for him (bad), in which he is showing a great individual level but has not managed to make the machinery work. Against the Pelicans, 33 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, but 7 turnovers and -22 with him on the court.
The Lakers were down by 7 at halftime (40-47) before the total disaster: 25-44 in the third quarter, in which they allowed their rivals to shoot over 60% in field goals the Angelenos staying at 8 of 24 in shots and, attention, 0 of 9 in triples. Frank Vogel’s team, which will come out safe in the summer with a ring under his arm (the one in 2020) but obvious shortcomings to take over an uncontrollable situation and players that he, with a defensive profile, never wanted or requested, added up to 23 losses and an ignominious 7 of 24 in triples. And they lost the battle for the rebound (51-38), the assists (29-15) and the attitude, of course. LeBron added more than 35 minutes for nothing, Russell Westbrook played his usual bland game (16+6 with 5 of 15 shooting, 1 assist and 7 turnovers), Malik Monk added 0 points in 24 minutes and Carmelo Anthony 13 off the bench ingloriously. Again, total disaster.
In the Pelicans, things worked well and they added a new victory, quite gratuitous, that brings them closer to the goal of the play-in. The five starters exceeded ten points, something that Devonte’ Graham also did from the bench (12), CJ McCollum was the top scorer with 22 points and Jonas Valanciunas had a double-double (19+10). Very good attitude, an advantage that gradually grew until it exploded in the third period and a disparate calendar, but eminently favorable between now and the end of the course. We are not going to talk about the games that the Lakers have left (so that) and everything comes to nothing with no one capable of raising an outrageously bad situation. Not even LeBron, who also had his friction with the journalist Bill Oram on Twitter at the end of the crash in a later deleted message and has no longer apologized to the fans after the duel. The star already thinks that this is over. The fans, fed up with the team and LeBron himself, too. The umpteenth Los Angeles disaster confirms what we already knew: that the Lakers are not at all. The good thing is that nobody expects them anymore.
