The Los Angeles Lakers had a back-to-back to kick off their week, giving the team two back-to-back opportunities to get embarrassed by their opponents. They wasted no time in getting right into that embarrassment, as you can see below that the team came out flat both against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday and against the Toronto Raptors last night.
The Lakers have been outscored by 47 points in the first quarter of their last 2 games… 🤯 pic.twitter.com/YSkO0vQVWJ
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) March 15, 2022
The most recent disappointing start resulted in a 114-103 defeat to the aforementioned Raptors, however, that final doesn’t really paint the picture of how debilitating the game was over the course of the night, with the Raptors holding a 15-20 point lead for nearly the entire game until the Lakers staged one of their signature fake late-game comebacks.
Afterward, Silver Screen & Roll’s Harrison Faigen reported that Frank Vogel’s spirits were still high enough to state that the team is “still fighting” and that they’re “not letting go of the rope”. Say what you will about this putrid season, but is nice to hear Vogel still trying to instill confidence in his team, even if we’re one night removed from Vogel seeming the most defeated he has ever seemed in a post-game media session.
“Instilling confidence” wasn’t really what LeBron James and Russell Westbrook did during their media availability, as the team’s two healthy leaders combined for around one minute and 30 seconds of post-game comments. I saw that in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way, as LeBron chose to not talk to the media at all after a night in which his anger was prevalent throughout.
Lakers say LeBron James will not speak postgame tonight.
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) March 15, 2022
Westbrook's presser lasted 1:30 secs… I agree that there was nothing else to say. https://t.co/uNbxcJSLXn
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) March 15, 2022
LeBron is LeGone after that contract is up. pic.twitter.com/T0Z2ufkX98
— Colb (@___Colb___) March 15, 2022
Coincidentally, I am also at a loss of words for these Lakers. There’s not much else analysis that we can do for this team. Until Anthony Davis returns, they apparently need 50+ points from LeBron to even be able to compete in a game, evidenced by those two performances of his in the past week serving as the team’s only two wins in the last 10 games.
I wasn't there, but even over the broadcast, it was clear the crowd at The Crypt did their best to give the Lakers energy all game. Credit to them for showing more commitment than this team deserves, honestly.
— Harrison Faigen (@hmfaigen) March 15, 2022
Instead of talking more about these Lakers, I want to give a shout-out to us Lakers fans, specifically the ones who have been at Crypto.com Arena the past few games. The boos weren’t really raining down last night, with the crowd actually staying positively involved with the game throughout even giving the Lakers some lofty cheers on impressive plays that only cut the lead down from say 19 to 16.
Anyways, the Lakers play the Timberwolves on Wednesday. Karl Anthony-Towns scored 60 points last night for them, leading his team to a 149-139 victory over the Spurs.
He just may break Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point record in this game against the Lakers’ defense.
