The in-season tournament might be the only thing the Los Angeles Lakers win this year. The team has watched the season spiral out of control since winning the inaugural in-season competition, which pits all 30 teams starting in November and ending in early December. The novelty competition from the NBA consists of a group play draw, leading into a knockout round. The single-elimination knockout games count toward the regular season win and loss totals, and the teams that were already eliminated resume their regular season schedule.
There is far more than pride and regular season wins to play for, as the tournament pays $500,000 each to winning players, $200,000 to second, and $100,000 to third. Even in a league of mega-rich athletes like LeBron James, that is a good payday for a few day’s work. Unfortunately for LeBron, his team, the Lakers seem to have run out of chemistry and good fortune after winning the tournament in Las Vegas in December.
Since beating the Indiana Pacer in Las Vegas on December 9th, the Lakers have swooned to a 3-9 record, culminated by a potentially season-defining loss to the Miami Heat on Wednesday. For the game, LeBron James scored a meager 12 points, and the team was outscored by 20 points in the game’s final 38 minutes. Exemplifying the frustration felt in the locker room, James exited without speaking to the media.
Others, however, had plenty to say. When asked about the vibe in the locker room, Austin Reaves said: “s–tty. We’re losing.” Embattled Head coach Darvin Ham blamed the skid on injuries. He said: “We got to get healthy. When you’re dealing with different guys being in and out of lineup that frequently, it is damn near impossible to find a rhythm. That’s just being real.”
Perhaps foreshadowing the growing disconnect between Ham and his team, star Anthony Davis had a very different take. He maintained: “Everybody’s capable of doing what they have to do for us to win basketball games on both ends of the floor. So the whole lineup thing isn’t an excuse.” Austin Reaves added to that sentiment by saying: “We’re more than talented enough to go win games. We have enough depth. We have enough skill. We gotta figure it out.”
Perhaps masked by the big-name players and the reputation of the franchise, the Lakers have some fatal flaws that are starting to become more apparent. Most alarming is the team can’t shoot the three. They are near the bottom in three-point percentage, and as a result, the Heat played zone defense Wednesday night, effectively daring the Lakers to shoot from long range. They did, to the tune of 4 for 30, and effectively had no chance to pull the Heat out of the zone defense.
Anthony Davis assessed the damage: “We got high-level IQ guys who know what we should be doing, and know what they should be doing individually.” When asked about the contrast between this year’s flailing squad and last year’s team that finished a round short of the finals, he offered: “This isn’t last year,” said Davis. “Different team. But what I can say is we just played. We just competed. We got to do the same thing now.”
There is growing discord in the locker room, a disconnect between coach and players, and fatal flaws in the Lakers game that can only mean one thing: a disastrous second half of the season and total failure as a franchise. LeBron is a free agent after the season, Davis has a contract that is going to hamstring the franchise for years, and the parts aren’t in place to win now. This all equates to a franchise on the verge of collapse that might take years to rebuild. Even if ratings continue to suffer for the NBA, at least watching the Lakers implode and LeBron pout is good television.
