The championship-or-bust Los Angeles Lakers are running out of time to right the ship before the playoffs arrive, and hometown fans have made their anger known. During the team's ugly blowout loss to the lowly New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday, the Cryto.com Arena crowd booed, and a fans' viral video appears to show LeBron James responding to courtside hecklers.
In the simplest terms, the Lakers have hit rock bottom. They've lost five of the last six games, and with a disappointing record of 27-33, they rank ninth in the Western Conference standings, as a vulnerable play-in game team. Any hopes of Los Angeles making a legitimate playoff run with the trio of James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook have essentially been dashed.
"I think Lakers fans when they see LeBron James make comments, they get a bit frustrated," Lakers Nation writer and host Trevor Lane told After Hours with Amy Lawrence on Tuesday. "Because they say, 'Wait a minute, LeBron had a role in creating this team, and now he's putting pressure on the organization to blow up or fix this team when he was part of the decision-making process that created the problem.'
"But, at the same time, I think there's an understanding that, what's happened has happened. Moving forward, if you're going to build a team around LeBron, you're going to have to give away some future assets, do what you can to fix this. Can't just run it back next year. Even if it means helping LeBron clean up a mess that maybe he was in part a creator of. I don't think Lakers fans have completely turned on LeBron. But there's a little bit of frustration out there..."
Although the Lakers are receiving considerable production from James -- he's averaging 29.0 points, his highest mark since the 2009-10 season -- the team stats show he can't carry this poorly built roster. Through 60 games, they rank bottom-seven in average points allowed (112.4), and to make matters worse, James is playing without Davis, who's sidelined weeks with an ankle sprain.
The Lakers will return to action on Tuesday night, in a home matchup against the Dallas Mavericks. According to FiveThirtyEight's projections, Los Angeles has just an 8-percent chance to reach the playoffs, and less than a 1-percent chance to make the NBA Finals.
The entire conversation between Lane and Lawrence can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow After Hours With Amy Lawrence on Twitter @ALawRadio and @AfterHoursCBS, and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.