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The day before the Lakers returned to action after the break from the stars, LeBron James told reporters, "My playoff intensity level has been activated." Let's take a look at this level of playoff intensity.
Despite a supposed surge of intensity, James and the Lakers have now lost two consecutive games against lower opponents. They first left the Anthony Pelicans without Anthony to stand up to them over the weekend before not disturbing the Grizzlies. They stand 29-31, at the bottom of a five-team battle for the last two playoff spots. To prevent LeBron from missing the playoffs for the first time since 2005, this broken team must be more or less perfect in the last 22 games of the season.
Is there any reason to believe that they will? Magic Johnson's failed quest, Anthony Davis, finally shattered the Lakers chemistry, which was already unstable, thanks to James' custom of shooting down the group of young misshapen players on his team and his efforts to get Luke Walton to away. On the field, they seem bored and indifferent to playing together, a surprise side effect of being bought publicly by the leader of your team.
After the defeat against the Pelicans, James again questioned the urgency of his teammates. as well as their concentration:
Is basketball the most important thing while we do this? Is this the most important thing in your life right now? Do you give everything to this game? And then, if you have the impression of doing everything, you have nothing to look back. You can do something else. If you have the impression of giving everything to the game, you can go do other things. But if you feel that you are not giving as much as you can, you can not focus on anything else.
Attention and urgency may not be the main problems here, maybe it's just that the Lakers are a bad team who do not get along well with James. He always needed shooters around him, and players like Reggie Bullock, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Kyle Kuzma – who has the reputation of a good shooter but only hits 32% of his six shots per game – are all James has for the moment. . The Lakers seem to need Lonzo Ball to defend themselves, as they dropped without him, but Ball also shot 41% of free throws and worse on goals. Everyone is one-dimensional, but nobody other than the deeply mean Bullock is unidimensional in the right way. Combine their structural flaws inherent in a collective agreement not to try, and you have this disaster.
The defeats of the Pelicans and Grizzlies sting so much because they were two of last games of L.A. in which they would have been privileged. Aside from two cupcakes against Chicago and Phoenix, the Lakers face a brutal final. They still have to face Boston twice (for revenge), Denver, Toronto, the Clippers, Utah and Milwaukee. And these matches will take place before the last six games against the Pelicans (who hate them and will do everything they can to win), Thunder, Warriors, Clippers, Jazz and Blazers.
The Clippers and Kings have easier schedules for the final quarter of the season and, with the number of wins needed to win the eighth seed, Los Angeles must score at least 15-7 in their last 22 games. His only consolation prize is this: the wolves have somehow the second most difficult program in the league, but even if they go beyond the wolves, they are still in 10th place, but still have to dislodge two of the Clippers, Kings and Spurs.
(How stupid would the Kings and Clippers, two of the most historically incompetent franchises in the NBA, make the playoffs against heavyweights like the Spurs and Lakers?)
If LeBron James takes them there, the only way to do that is to get the playoff intensity to play. That means beating the Rockets and falling flat against the Pelicans and Grizzlies, why would you believe that there is more to see Lakers? I suppose it's possible, but it will take a sustained effort that these Lakers have never been able to reach.
I leave you with the following.
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