Lakers vs Pelicans Bottom Line LeBron Anthony Davis fall short

Lakers vs. Pelicans Bottom Line: LeBron, Anthony Davis fall short in return

Sports News / By /

I don’t think Frank Vogel went into Friday night’s game to lose, but if he was trying to help the Lakers tank I’m not sure how different his lineup decisions would have been. Because if bad basketball squads that don’t make much sense on paper or in practice were an album, Vogel played all of his greatest hits in the Lakers’ 114-111 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans.

The loss dropped the team to 31-46, three games behind the Pelicans for ninth place West, a full game behind the Spurs for tenth place and close to missing the play-in entirely.

The wrong decisions that got them to this point came in waves. LeBron James and Anthony Davis were back, but they were flanked as starters by the terrible distance pairing of Dwight Howard and Russell Westbrook, and what made matters worse was shooting guard and bird safety blanket Avery Bradley’s inclusion of a routine DNP CDs back in the starting XI, for some reason. As a result, the rush-hour offense looked more congested than the 405, as expected.

Then, as James and Davis went on the bench simultaneously in the first quarter, Westbrook was asked to carry the team himself alongside luminaries like Wenyen Gabriel, DJ Augustin and Malik Monk. This is a strategy where we’ve seen Westbrook no longer capable of coming out on top at almost every opportunity he’s been given throughout the year, so it wasn’t a surprise when it wasn’t worked.

These are just a few examples of the questionable rotation decisions Vogel made that night alone in the first half that put the Lakers behind the 8-ball. And all could be defended in a vacuum if this were the first night of the season.

Extra length to deal with the front line of pelicans! Avery Bradley Chasing CJ McCollum!

But for all the “season starts now” jokes, the season is almost over. We know this doesn’t work. We have the tape. We’ve seen it all year. And the Lakers don’t have the margin for error to make up for mistakes, and certainly not that many in a row on the same night. This roster is too sensitive, too flawed. It must be massaged perfectly, not repeatedly beaten out of mistakes with a jackhammer.

James and Davis are both still clearly great. James finished the game with 38 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, while Davis looked a little slower in his first return game but still worked his way up to 23 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists.

And for all the examples we have of them or their supporting cast not showing up to play this season, the Lakers actually came out with great energy tonight. Their shot selection and execution weren’t great on the stretch, but the Lakers needn’t have been perfect in the closing minutes if they hadn’t been put into such bad situations for various sections of the game that they essentially had zero cushion to get around survive longer minutes without shooting out the lights.

James gets slammed for his latest miss, but the Lakers wouldn’t have needed a desperate buzzer-beater just to send this into overtime if they hadn’t essentially played the entire first half like a tanking team, or like someone doing something Cardio for a preseason gets game.

James and Davis’ collective fame can make up for a lot. It can even keep the Lakers close despite their lineup choices. But it can’t fully offset so many choices like this. Not in such a flawed roster, and certainly not in what might be the Lakers’ highest game of the year. And because the team chose to play it with essentially one hand tied behind the back, they may end up missing the play-in.

If the 2021-22 Lakers season finally ends like this, then consider this game a fitting conclusion to a year-long odyssey of self-inflicted wounds.

For more lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed iTunes, Spotify, stapler or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.