For the longest time, I was with Lakers fans on one thing — I was sure the Lakers would figure this thing out and at least make the playoffs.
Now, I’m becoming less sure, just because of the math. As noted last night, the Lakers need to go 30-18 the rest of the way to get to 45 wins this season, which is pretty much the minimum needed to make the playoffs out West. And that is with the seven-game Grammy road trip and some other challenges ahead of them.
Then Steve Nash said this after the Lakers sloppy loss in Houston Tuesday night, as reported by the Los Angeles Times:
“I think three or four weeks ago, people would have said, ‘Oh, it will get better,’ ” Nash said. “Right now, I definitely don’t think there’s a guarantee it will, so the only remedy is to continue to work hard and give yourself a chance for it to get better….
“I obviously think with time — and that might mean through the summer — we can get better,” Nash said, “but for this season it’s definitely going to be a challenge to turn this around, to find the chemistry and cohesion, to find a way for the pieces to work together, to a find a way to get back in transition defense better. There are a number of things we have to try to improve on to get better, but the one thing we can’t accept is to take our foot off the gas and accept things. We have to continue to fight.”
Any sane person (so, not some Lakers fans) knew there were going to be bumps in the road this season as the Lakers integrated two new star players into a new offensive scheme, Mike Brown’s hybrid Princeton offense. Then there was Steve Nash being injured, Dwight Howard’s back never being right, Pau Gasol’s knees all holding stars back. Then there was a coaching change to a radically different system.
Through all of it, the Lakers have never found traction, particularly on defense (which remains the end of the floor where they struggle the most).
“We were walking out of the shoot-around [Tuesday] and we just kind of looked at each other,” guard Kobe Bryant said. “I said to him, ‘We thought it was going to be easier this year for us.’ “
There is an increasing likelihood the Lakers miss the playoffs all together. And they won’t get anything good out of that — they traded their first round pick this year to Phoenix for Nash.
