and the tale (never better said) it’s over. EITHER it was confirmed mathematically that what was already finished is over weeks ago. Or rather, if we follow that logic, what had never even started. It was in Phoenix, which has its symbolism: the Suns won as they wanted (121-110 with a meager 70-49 between the second and third quarters) and liquidated the last bullet (I insist: mathematics, not real) his hated Lakers. It is, for the Suns, the confirmation (again mathematical, it was also a matter of time) that this is the best season in their history. They already have 63 wins (63-16), one more than the best version of the team in the Seven Seconds Or Less and that tremendous 1993 finalist who directed a Charles Barkley MVP.
They played, although it seems almost sarcastic if you analyze the state of things in the Lakers, the last two kings of the West. A year and a half ago (it really seems unbelievable) the Lakers won their Conference and the title in the Florida bubble, where the Suns were left out of the play in on the photo finish. But they left a scent of growth that underpinned the arrival of Chris Paul: NBA finalists in 2021 and best team, from cover to cover, of the 2021-22 season. And favorite to the title at the gates of the playoffs. There, in ten days, his true season begins. They have everything to be champions for the first time in their history. We will see if this time, in addition, they are vaccinated against vertigo.
The Lakers, whether yes or yes even from the play in, have been falling into the abyss in two very complicated seasons with injuries and meaningless revolutions in offices. With the goal of adding points and talent and finding sources of production beyond a (now) 37-year-old LeBron James, they buried the hallmarks of a champion team and found nothing in returnjust misery. From the 2020 title to play in and the elimination in the first round against the Suns (precisely) in 2021 to this goodbye without even reaching the playoffs in 2022. A resounding failure, one of the greatest disasters in NBA history.
A LeBron team had never lost 48 games (it’s 31-48 now) and one of the two title favorites according to preseason betting had never been left out of playoffs (eyewhich the other one in October was… the Nets). Las Vegas bookmakers were projecting 52.5 wins for the Lakers… who are down 21 with three miserable games left that no one in the franchise will want to play. No one except perhaps LeBron himself, who needs to ensure the minimum number of court appearances to aspire to the title of Top Scorer. His season is complex: more than 30 points on average in his 19th year in the League, a crazinessbut a quarter of the course off the slopes due to injury and his share of responsibility in the tremendous chaos that has surrounded him.
In the middle of the season, and after having had a schedule that was easy peasy, the Lakers were with a pyrrhic 21-20. Since then, and with the steepest path, it is a 10-28, 3-13 in the last 16 games and seven consecutive losses now to seal goodbye to the playoffs, surpassed by Pelicans and Spurs, two teams that are finishing much better than them but they were far behind, too much for all this to have the slightest justification. Injuries play a role, of course. Not that these Lakers are not contenders for the ring, but that they are not even in play in. The big three LeBron-Anthony Davis-Russell Westbrook has only played 21 games (11-10 in them). LeBron has already missed 23, including four of the last five. In 48 days he has only shared the track once with Anthony Davis, who has missed half a season and who even now, in the final stretch, is playing visibly with an ankle injury. Does anyone remember Kendrick Nunn? One of the wild card of the Angelenos in the last free agency has not been able to play a minute for a mysterious knee injury.
Now the consequences will come, of course: Frank Vogel, who made the team champion less than two years ago, will not continue on the bench. They gave him a rotation that doesn’t speak his language, without defensive specialists and without enough physicality. And he has finished detonating it with a constant stream of questionable decisions and strange rotations. Hardly any signing has worked out: Malik Monk, at least, has scored and Carmelo Anthony started well but was later (predictably) out of gas. The rest? Dwight Howard, DeAndre Jordan, Kent Bazemore, Trevor Ariza, Wayne Ellington… Any. One of the few good news has been the rookie not drafted Austin Reaves (18 points and 6 assists against the Suns, by the way), because Talen Horton-Tucker has also been a tremendous fiasco, in his case as a young bet strategic.
The entire squad will change, surely except for LeBron James and Anthony Davis. And probably Reaves, and we’ll see what happens with a Monk who will be a free agent… We will have to find a solution to the enormous disaster that was the transfer by Russell Westbrook (he has a player option of more than 47 million for the next season), and it will be necessary to find a coach. There should also be changes in the offices, fresh air in a franchise beset by inbreeding and the lack of vision beyond the limits of its kingdomno matter how golden this is (which still is). LeBron had only run out playoffs in his first two seasons in the NBA. Now he’s going to miss the playoffs for the second time in his four years in LA Something happensBad luck with injuries and the wonderful ring hiatus of 2020 aside. It’s so obvious, so utterly clear, that the next few weeks should be a whirlwind of rumors, news and decisions. In that order. The harvest of what has been sown: a funeral of misery, an anthological collapse, a failure that is already NBA history. (D)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
