The Los Angeles Lakers have actively been pushing to win games all season but keep falling short. After all, they were a team contending for the championship, but have found themselves outside even the Play-In tournament in the West.
Even when the Lakers were faltering earlier in the season, many took a play-in berth for granted from the purple and gold. However, the team has been in absolutely rotten form since the All-Star break, with 50% of their wins since coming when LeBron James scored 50 points. At one point, the Lakers were 0-8 when LeBron hadn’t scored 50.
After the Lakers lost to the Denver Nuggets in an afternoon tip-off yesterday, they registered their 16th loss since February’s All-Star break. This gave them ownership of the second-worst record in the NBA over this period, with the Portland Trail Blazers the only team that is doing worse.
Teams that are comfortably outperforming the Lakers are the likes of Eastern Conference basement-dwellers in the Detroit Pistons (10-11) and the Orlando Magic (7-12). If the Lakers even matched the record of the Magic, they would currently have a one-game lead on the Spurs for the 10th seed.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, who have been going out of their way to tank have somehow registered a better record than the Lakers over this period, along with the Houston Rockets as well.
The Lakers’ biggest rivals right now are the San Antonio Spurs and the New Orleans Pelicans, two teams that have done really well recently. Both teams are above .500 since the All-Star break, with the Pelicans holding a record of 11-8 while the Spurs have a record of 10-9. Both teams have wins over the Lakers in this span, who need an immediate reversal in their fortunes if they want to see themselves make the playoffs.
