3-13. That’s the current record for the Lakers this season so far. It’s wise that the Lakers keep a positive outlook by seeing improvements in losses and saying things like they are better than their record.
But are they better than their record?
Bad teams spend a season getting blown out on some nights (Golden State) and showing some fight on others (Memphis, Clippers). After the close losses one starts to think, “well if they put forth that type of effort every night… ”
But it never happens with bad teams. It didn’t happen against the cellar-dwelling Minnesota Timberwolves last night. They can never seem to put together the closing effort good enough pull out victories rather than moral victories. Good teams play with the bad teams and win at the end because they are that good. Lakers fans know that because we’ve been on the other end of that.
We are now 16 games into the season with the season with the question being which team is this Lakers team?
In most cases you are your record. But Oklahoma City is not their record because of obvious injuries to their star players. Do the Lakers have any excuses why they are dismally 10 games below .500?
No. Not really.
Their starting five is healthy and has had ample opportunities to build chemistry.
Right now we are witnessing a team that cannot play defense. When they do, they can’t score. They can lead but can’t close out. They blow big leads because they lack killer instinct. They look…well…like a bad team.
Against Minnesota they gave up 120 points. Byron is mad. He said the team lacks focus. What can possibly take away your focus? What could be more capable of creating a sense of urgency and focus than being 9 games under .500? And they didn’t have it? So is it focus or talent??
I have to believe that they are better than their record, but at the same time that record isn’t a mistake. They kinda stink right now. Really bad. The question is can they turn it around?
So where’s the optimism? They have about 30 games to figure it out. By all-star break, the team you are is the team you are.
The Lakers haters and the Lakers lovers are both watching. Let’s see what happens.
Tags: Byron Scott, Jeremy Lin, kobe bryant, lakers, nba
The Lakers Optimist 
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