Los Angeles Lakers: It’s almost time to put a fork in LA’s season
The Los Angeles Lakers are running out of time to turn their season around.
The Los Angeles Lakers win over the Utah Jazz earlier this week perfectly epitomized the team’s season. Even in their wins, they took an L.
Los Angeles may have beaten the Jazz, but lost Anthony Davis for what appears to be the foreseeable future.
Early indications are that Davis is going to be out for at least four weeks with a foot injury. Knowing his injury history, it’s probably more likely he misses more than four weeks than less.
That means the Lakers will have to return to the floor post-All-Star break without a healthy Davis. Looking at the standings, the Lakers aren’t entirely done but their chances of making any type of miracle run in the postseason (if they even get there) are looking bleaker and bleaker.
With just 24 games left, the Lakers will have an uphill battle to make the playoffs. They’re sitting in the 9th seed of the conference and are roughly 3.5 games back of the 7th seed.
If they can’t make up that ground (they’ll have to do so with the third-hardest remaining schedule), they’re likely going to have to face one of the Phoenix Suns or Golden State Warriors in the first round (assuming they can make it out of the Play-In Tournament).
Even with a fully healthy roster, that will be a tall task – and then some. Especially as the team continues to spiral out of control in an attempt to gel together.
The Lakers have not had great luck this season. There’s no denying that.
Key Lakers missed games:
- LeBron James: 17 games
- Anthony Davis: 21 games
- Carmelo Anthony: 8 games
- Talen Horton-Tucker: 16 games
However, most teams in the league this season have had to battle through injury and unavailability. The Lakers have simply done a poor job of surviving that.
The one star that has been relatively healthy for the Lakers this season is the one that has played the worst this season. And that’s not to say that the Lakers’ struggles this season are entirely Russell Westbrook’s fault, but he hasn’t been able to lift the team when they’ve needed him to.
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The Lakers are on the ropes. Their season isn’t entirely over, but their hope is growing dim.