Is he as skeptical about his team’s postseason chances as we are?
NBA Central reported on December 27th (when the Lakers would eventually beat the Orlando Magic 129-110) that James deleted the following tweet he posted last season:
Note those numbers: 215,000 like, 17,500 retweets, and 9,228 quote tweets. For most of us, that’s a blockbuster. Many, many eyeballs have (ahem) witnessed the 18-time All-Star’s initial stated plan to never miss the postseason again.
LA’s front office, unfortunately, seemed to have other plans this summer, when it failed to trade the excessive contract of Russell Westbrook in exchange for role players who would fit better around James and All-Star center/power forward Anthony Davis.
James, who turns 38 today, may have finally caught on to the fact that, well, it sure looks like his team is about to miss the playoffs for the second straight season. Los Angeles has lost five of its last six games as it continues to lose ground without Davis, the club’s best player.
AD remains out indefinitely (never two words you want to read) with a stress injury in his right foot. At the earliest, he could return to the Lakers’ active lineup in mid-January. Five of the team’s next seven opponents through that period have records above .500 and will be tough to beat.
LA’s available, healthy LA players are wrapping up an unhappy road trip this weekend with games against the Atlanta Hawks (tonight) and Charlotte Hornets (Monday). Given what happened last time LA played the now 10-26 Hornets, dropping both these contests is entirely possible for a 14-21 Lakers club in active free fall.
Los Angeles is currently on the outside of the Western Conference play-in tournament picture looking in, given that the 13th-seeded franchise is 3.5 games behind the 10th-seeded Golden State Warriors. When Davis was healthy and looking like a world-beater, the Lakers were still striving to make up ground from their miserable 2-10 season start. Without him, they seemed doomed to keep sinking. L.A. is just four games better than the 10-25 Houston Rockets, the 15th seed in the West.
