For the regular NBA fan or regular Lakers fan, things looked pretty good as of late. The team were winners of four straight and 13 out of 14 games heading into their matchup with OKC. They were also in the drivers seat for the 3rd seed in the West, having won the season series against Denver, Houston and Minnesota. But for the hardcore NBA and Lakers fan, we all knew the Lakers issues were going to come back to haunt them. More on this later. But to prove us all wrong (or the believers right) the Lakers just needed to have a good showing agianst the Thunder, in Oklahoma City.
And that’s where things turned, bad!
Lets speak about the Lakers issues from before. The Lakers can’t keep up with good, young fast teams, period. They are a good team but they lack the team speed to match up against the young athletic teams in the league like the Thunder, the Spurs and the Pistons. They even have trouble with a young athletic team like the Orlando Magic. The fans with the keen basketball eye have seen it repeatedly when they face these teams, including in last year’s playoffs against the young and athletic Minnesota Timberwolves. The other problem, Luka’s constant complaining and not getting back on defense. Lebron does it too but Luka is worse. Combine those warts together and things were bound to go south against a determined Thunder team, looking to make a late season statement.
Now let’s get to the actual game. The Lakers didn’t stand a chance. The game was over by the end of the first quarter. The Lakers warts showed up fast. They couldn’t hang with the young Thunder when trying to stop them from scoring. Luka complained on missed shots instead of getting back on defense. They also couldn’t crack the Thunder’s defensive code. The long and athletic players on OKC just stifled the Lakers, making it hard for them to even bring the ball up the court. The game was over early, very early.
But them Luka got hurt, trying to stop on the dime in transition to make a layup. He tweaked his hamstring at that point before outright straining it later in the game. And also during the 1st quarter, Austin Reaves could be seen holding his side as if he was hit with a sharp elbow in the side or something. The Lakers were not only humiliated and thoroughly outplayed, they were getting physically injured in the process. It was all bad.
And then came the news a day later that Luka had a grade 2 hamstring strain and would miss the rest or the regular season. OK, we’ve been here before. Lebron and Austin Reaves are more than capable enough of helping the Lakers keep that 3rd seed and carrying the Lakers in a 1st round series. No, it wasn’t optimal or by any means a given that they would do it, but it was possible. But then, a day later, news hit that Austin Reaves has an abdominal strain and would miss 4-6 weeks. Yikes!
The season is over for them. Lebron and the rest of the Lakers are not enough to hold on to the 3rd or 4th seed. And they definitely won’t win a playoff series without Luka and/or Reaves. That’s that!
As they say, there’s always next year.