The Lakers’ season is over. What now?
That the train is headed in that direction has been clear to all passengers on board for some time, but Sunday’s results seemed to dispel any doubts about the final destination of the Lakers’ sad season. With LeBron James sitting outside while nursing a sprained ankle and a one-legged Anthony Davis trying and failing to counter the reigning league MVP, the Lakers were thrashed against the Denver Nuggets. They didn’t play particularly badly; in fact, Russell Westbrook had his best game of the season. They just weren’t good enough.
The loss, combined with San Antonio’s win over the Portland Tankers later in the evening, sent the Lakers two games behind the Spurs in the standings for the last play-in spot with four contests left. The Lakers also lose the tiebreak to San Antonio, leaving them three games to make up at San Antonio next week. Spurs’ magic number is two; the Lakers could be eliminated as early as Tuesday.
So technically it’s not over yet, but… it’s over.
As if to underscore how far they’ve fallen, the Lakers were outclassed by the same Denver team they easily beat in the conference finals two years ago…even though the Nuggets have two maximum contract players out for the season.
Simply put, the 2021-22 Lakers were a paper tiger, a hollowed out image of the team that dominated the 2020 bubble.