To shield itself from further embarrassment, all L.A. needed was an especially supportive home crowd, Bryant’s season-high 38 points and the lottery-bound Minnesota Timberwolves on the opposite bench. All that—a perfect storm in their favor—and the Lakers only won by four points.
That’s how low expectations have sunk.
This win was cause for celebration and relief. And long after the Staples Center confetti was swept away, a disturbing reminder settled in: This is the ugliest season in Lakers history.
Los Angeles is 10-41. It has the worst record in the Western Conference, and FiveThirtyEight’s CARMELO forecast had it ranked dead last before the Philadelphia 76ers were walloped on Wednesday night by the Atlanta Hawks.
This is what it’s come to: The Lakers are as bad as the Sixers, a 7-42 club that currently employs several players who wouldn’t be in the NBA if Sam Hinkie weren’t the general manager.
Before naming Jerry Colangelo their chairman of basketball operations, and assigning him the unenviable task of reshaping an ongoing renovation—“The Process” was either spiraling out of control or in need of just a tiny bit more patience, depending on who you ask—the Sixers were, in effect, losing basketball games on purpose. They were an intentional abomination, but they always had both eyes on the long game.
And it’s fair to say Los Angeles still puts out the inferior on-court product.
Don't believe me? I reached out to a couple of writers who know the 76ers inside and out: Tom Moore, a beat writer covering the team for Calkin...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
