Starting the season 2-10 and finishing with a winning record is not something that happens too often, but the 2022-23 Los Angeles Lakers have managed to do just that.
A win over the Phoenix Suns on Friday night meant the Lakers improved to 42-39 and they have now become the first team in nearly two decades to finish with a winning record, after starting 2-10 or worse.
“The Lakers this season became the first team since the Nets and Bulls in 2004-05 to start off 2-10 or worse and finish with a winning record according to @ESPNStatsInfo.”
The Lakers this season became the first team since the Nets and Bulls in 2004-05 to start off 2-10 or worse and finish with a winning record according to @ESPNStatsInfo
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 8, 2023
The New Jersey Nets would finish that season at 42-40 while the Chicago Bulls enjoyed quite the turnaround, finishing 47-35. They were both eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, however, and the Lakers would be hoping to avoid that fate.
Unless the Golden State Warriors lose their last game against the Portland Trail Blazers or the Los Angeles Clippers lose both of their remaining two games, the Lakers are set to finish with the seventh seed, provided they win their last game against the Utah Jazz. They’d be favored to win that first play-in game after that, which would mean they’d face the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round and that’d be a great series.
How Far Can The Lakers Go This Season?
Making the playoffs after their terrible start would be commendable, but the Lakers are a franchise that is all about postseason success. With the trades that they made just before the deadline, there is no doubt that this team is now much better suited to make a deep postseason run.
It would be difficult no doubt, as they won’t have home-court advantage in any series and their opponents aren’t easy by any means either. While they have almost certainly avoided a matchup with the Suns until the Western Conference Finals, the Lakers could potentially face the likes of the Warriors, Kings, or Clippers in the second round.
They seem confident that they can still make some noise, with LeBron James saying that injuries are the only thing that can hold them back. If either he or his co-star Anthony Davis is out due to injury in any series, then the Lakers are almost certainly getting knocked out and they’d be praying that the injury bug stays away from them in the postseason.
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