Long faces greeted members of the media heading to the Lakers’ locker room the other day. The sight was to be expected. The purple and gold didn’t just lose to the Clippers; they did so in a rout. Outside of the first four minutes of the match, they stared at the backsides of the hosts and put up a feeble effort en route to yet another disappointing finish. They may have made a short run approaching the final canto, but even their fans knew the set-to was practically over at the half. It was their fourth setback in their last six outings, and whatever excuses they may have had for their poor play of late could not explain away a fundamental truth.
Indeed, the Lakers are simply not good enough to keep pace with their supposed peers, let alone notable contenders in the National Basketball Association. They’re 22-18 to date, and while they’re provisionally sixth in West standings, they’re just one and a half games away from being out of the play-in tournament altogether. In the highly competitive conference, a small slump can spell doom to hopefuls, and they look to be most susceptible to a handful for the rest of the season; not for nothing is their point differential worse than all but the hapless Blazers, Pelicans, and JazNeedless to say, the scribes hovered around the always-quotable LeBron James. All of 40 years old and near retirement, he remains the face of the league; anything he says generates reactions, one way or the other. And he knows it, too. To be fair, he did post a respectable 25-5-11-3-1 stat line in 35 minutes on the court. Still, he could not help but feel like he’s swimming against the current. He noted that the Lakers “have to play close-to-perfect basketball” as he took stock of their disappointing showing. “We don’t have a choice; that’s the way our team is constructed.”
Given James’ penchant for passive-aggressive behavior, he may or may not have been sending the front office a message with his words. All the same, they rang true. Bottom line, the Lakers have a roster that isn’t built well for the modern NBA, and a coaching staff still unable to maximize assets halfway through their 2024-25 campaign. They’re decidedly reliant on their starters, which isn’t bad in and of itself; unfortunately, they’re likewise hard-pressed to take advantage of defenses that naturally crowd the post and resort to drop coverages in the face of their top-heavy predilections.
If there’s any good news, it’s that the Lakers face the lowly Wizards at home on Wednesday. The bad news is that the Celtics come next. In other words, they’re bound to continue riding the roller coaster — squeaking past also-rans and then being treated to blowouts by the established elite. Which is just too bad, because James deserves better than to wallow in mediocrity as he exits stage left. Their fans deserve better as well. Unfortunately, they are where they are, with no reprieve in sight.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
