Lakers still have life, but NBA season is lost

LeBron James said it (who else) at the end of another loss of his Lakers against the Mavericks. The sixth in the last seven games or the tenth in the last 13. Since the beginning of February, they have only managed three victories and the season seems definitely doomed to failure.

But LeBron is the leader of the team, the one who must lead by example, the one who must maintain the competitive spirit of a squad that is becoming dangerously accustomed to exchanging applause for whistles.

With three quarters to go, the Lakers are seven games under 50 percent (27-34), sit in ninth place with a two-game lead over the New Orleans Pelicans (25-36), the Portland Trail Blazers (25-36) and three and a half games ahead of the San Antonio Spurs (24-38).

And if you look at the standings, avoiding the playoffs seems like an impossible mountain to climb: they are 9 wins behind the sixth-place Denver Nuggets. Pulling that many games ahead with only 21 to play is a pipe dream.

The season seems inexorably lost. Between injuries, roster construction problems, average age and, above all, the lack of game identity, the sentence is not official but appears as a possibility almost impossible to change.

Is it possible to believe LeBron’s words or should we prepare for a few more games of fans waving a white flag?

Lakers: Are they a bipolar team?
It’s always mentioned that after the All-Star Game is when the season really starts to cook. It’s the time when teams start warming up to get the team sounding tuned up and in good rhythm heading into the playoffs.

Today, however, the Lakers are not in that situation. Since the beginning of February they have been trying to consolidate an idea of the game, but they are not succeeding. On the contrary, game by game they are looking more and more like an anarchic team, without ideas, trying to reverse course by choking.

Proof of this are the 30 starting line-ups that have been tried so far this season. A change in the starting five every two games is too much. It detracts from consistency and creates doubts. Coach Frank Vogel himself has acknowledged that this issue has become a nightmare, and although he tries to find answers that lead him to find signs of progress, the truth is that these are nowhere to be seen.

Most palpable of all is the distrust of his own players. Any setback seems to break them. Any adversity becomes impossible to solve in the course of a match.

For example, in the catastrophic 28-point loss to the Pelicans, the team totaled 23 turnovers, with LeBron and Russell Westbrook contributing 7 each in that statistical box. But most troubling of all, was the level of intensity shown on the court.

At times they gave the impression of being a bipolar team. But a different kind of bipolarity: not one that alternates moments of excellence with others of chaos, but a bipolarity measured in terms of intensity and concentration.

In that game against New Orleans, the body language of every member of the team indicated that focus and effort were lacking and that this would inexorably lead to an increase in the number of losses during the season.

It was a night of defeat and humiliation. Jeanie Buss (team owner) left the arena in the third quarter and players like LeBron himself, Trevor Ariza and Russell Westbrook ended up arguing with fans who kept criticizing them. It was one of the lowest moments of the season, no doubt.

But back to bipolarity. In the losses to the LA Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks, the team showed determination to fight every possession like it was their last, but both times they ended up losing a game in which they had leads of 5 and 6 points in the last quarter.

Against the Mavericks, the bipolarity was also expressed at different times of the game. They came from being down 19 points in the second quarter to close the first half losing 71-56 after Dallas scored 41 points in the second quarter alone.

In the third quarter, everything went the other way: the Lakers left Dallas 14 points down and managed to enter the last period with a 2-point lead. The gap widened to 5 with just over 8 minutes left, however, with a favorable 17-7 run, Dallas took the win. With only good spurts, it is not enough to win games consistently.

The future looks like a bad close to the season.
Without Anthony Davis for a while, as he will be evaluated for an ankle injury in three weeks, the chances of the Lakers gaining consistency are reduced.

Will Vogel give continuity to what he showed against Dallas by using a low-post lineup with LeBron James as the pivot, or will he continue his quest to find a lineup that guarantees to compete and win games?

The Lakers are in no position to experiment, quite the contrary. After 61 games they should know how to strengthen their attributes and disguise their weaknesses. But there are still many nuts to tighten and several questions to resolve.

Should Westbrook play in close games? Should they try to implement better paint defense with traditional lineups that include a pivot? Those are some of the more stinging ones.

Most likely, it’s business as usual: only Dwight Howard is a pivot capable of defending the paint today in the wake of Davis’ absence. And Howard was only on the court for 4 minutes against Dallas, while his average minutes per game in the last five games has been 14.

In addition to the existing doubts about the type of lineups to be used, the calendar adds others of greater weight and forcefulness: of the 21 remaining games, 16 will be against opponents with a better record than their own. In addition, 14 of them will be away games and away games they have won only 9 out of 27. That is why LeBron James’ words sound more like an expression of desire than a true conviction.

Although nothing is officially set in stone, it must be considered that although they are in the playoffs today, the possibility that they could fall out of the top 10 in the Western Conference and become a team that goes to the draft lottery is latent.

The real goal at this point is to save the season. But when we talk about saving it, we are imagining getting into the playoffs and, at least, playing a first round of the playoffs. Because there is no doubt that, with this current situation, no one can imagine a better scenario.

And all this happens even when LeBron James is part of their roster, who at 37 years old is closing a season with impressive numbers: he averages 28.9 points per game with 52% from the field and 35.1% in three-pointers. He also has 8.0 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 1.0 blocks and 1.6 steals in 36.8 minutes on average.

Had he been better surrounded, had he had fewer injuries and had the team had a defined identity, today’s goals could have been different. Instead, these stats from the team’s best player have fallen on deaf ears.

Historically, a quick exit was considered a failure for one of the two franchises with the most titles in NBA history. Therefore, the word failure applies perfectly when describing this season.

The stark reality indicates that these Lakers have 21 games left to try to salvage a season.

But despite LeBron’s words, this season is already lost.