The NBA isn’t done with the regular season yet, but with a handful of games remaining, most things are settled. And one of them is who went directly to the playoffs and who must go through the play-in to define the eight teams from each conference in the postseason. And the name of the Los Angeles Lakers is not among them.
With the last loss of the Californians against the Phoenix Suns (the best team in the league at the moment), added to the surprising victory of the San Antonio Spurs against Denver, the Lakers were three games behind those of Gregg Popovich with the same number of games to play. And since the tiebreaker, which takes into account games against each other, is favorable to the Texans, the Lakers can no longer overcome it.
A) Yes,a terribly bad season is leaving due to expectations that the team had generated, after a frustrating previous season due to LeBron’s injuries and early elimination in the first round when defending the championship ring.
– 2018-19: No Playoffs
– 2019-20: Champion
– 2020-21: Eliminated in 1st Round
- 31 wins and 48 losses It is the record (with three games remaining) that condemned the Lakers to watch the postseason on television.
- 10 They are the teams that qualify for the next phase in a Conference with 15 franchises. Lakers could not advance
- eleven it’s where they are in the West and they can still drop to 12th if they lose the remaining three and the Kings win.
- 7 they are the consecutive defeats that they accumulate. Only the eight from Portland that is tanking treacherously surpasses them
- 164 million in salaries is what the Lakers spent in the summer market to add reinforcements
- Four. Five million is what Russell Westbrook earned for this season, one of the weakest of his career
- 4 Westbrook has had consecutive seasons with a different team (18/19 with Oklahoma, 19/20 with Houston, 20/21 with Washington and 21/22 with Lakers. Will it be five?)
- 53 All-Star appearances rack up the Lakers’ roster. In San Antonio there is hardly one (DeJounte Murray) and it was in this year.
- 4 players in the top 75 in NBA history have the Lakers.
- two are the seasons in which LeBron could not reach the postseason since he is in Los Angeles
- 30.3 are the points that LeBron averaged in the season, the highest since the 2006 season
- 56 games LeBron hardly played in the season, evidencing the team’s dependence on his presence, not being able to replace him when he was injured
- 37 James is years old and still had similar numbers (or better) than his prime, the Lakers not being able to take advantage of them.
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The numbers of the failure of LeBron James’ Lakers