The Los Angeles Lakers finally booked their ticket to the playoffs on Tuesday when they beat the Minnesota Timberwolves in the play-in game.
It has been a remarkable turnaround for a team that started the season so poorly and their whiteboard in the locker room shows just how far they’ve come.
The Lakers whiteboard in the locker room showing how far the team came. From 2-10 to clinching a playoff berth. pic.twitter.com/6rJQ2ZQLdc
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 12, 2023
The Lakers were, of course, 2-10 after their first 12 games this season and at that point, analytics had given them a 0.3% chance of making the playoffs. They deserve a lot of praise for getting to the seventh seed after that horrendous start and are now entering their first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies with a lot of momentum on their side.
Perhaps the biggest indicator of just how far they have come is that they started the season 2-10 and have now gone 10-2 in their last 12 games to get to the playoffs. They have shown a lot of heart and character to get to this point, but the job is not finished and LeBron James would be making sure his team knows that.
The Lakers Became The 1st Team In Nearly Two Decades To Finish With A Winning Record After A 2-10 Or Worse Start
A turnaround of this sort isn’t something you see all that often and the Lakers, in fact, became the first team in nearly two decades to finish with a winning record (43-39) after starting off 2-10 or worse. The New Jersey Nets and the Chicago Bulls last did it in the 2004-05 season, with the Nets finishing at 47-35 while the Bulls were 42-40.
Both teams did lose in the first round itself, however, and no team has so far managed to win a series after advancing through the play-in tournament either. So, history isn’t exactly on the side of LeBron and the Lakers, but he has made a career out of defying the odds, so you wouldn’t put it past them to beat the Grizzlies. Rajon Rondo has gone so far as to have them as one of the favorites to win the Western Conference and if they do get to the Finals, it would be an incredible story.
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