The Los Angeles Lakers have become unwatchable. They’re not the worst team in the league, but having to attend to watching some of the greatest players in NBA history NOT in their prime, losing anticlimactic games, is just rough. Their latest defeat came against the Clippers Thursday night, falling 132-111. The Clips were missing Paul George, Kawai Leonard and Norman Powell. Lebron James was in action. Russell Westbrook was playing.
I know that for a fact because Reggie Jackson froze Russ with this ball handling gem.
The Clippers clinched a season sweep of the Lakers with a dominant win, and it’s hard to find reasons to even care about this team when they have so blatantly given up on this season. It just seems like since Anthony Davis’ injury they are completely deflated and unwilling to be original. There’s also the whole effort thing…
Portland welcomed the Lakers to the Moda Center back in February and scored a close win. This was a Trail Blazers team that was, and still is by all accounts, trying to tank this season for picks. How could a team lead by Anfernee Simons grab a win over a health LA team lead by Lebron James? That’s just effort right there, dear reader.
Something else to think about in all of this mess are the fans. There have been at least three instances where Laker games were flexed into primetime slots, and they underperformed each time. They’ll do it again this Saturday on ABC against the Warriors of all teams.