Lakers Limping Into Offseason

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Turn out the lights. Cancel the parade plans. Get ready to selloff your Pau Gasol jerseys. This season is over for the Los Angeles Lakers. Of course it was all but over the second Jim Buss drunk dialed Mike D’Antoni on a fateful Sunday night. But I digress…

Phil Jackson couldn’t have saved this season so let’s not even go down that road. Injuries compounded by questionable personnel decisions helped to sabotage an otherwise disappointing season. The expectations were high. Too high in fact.

We expected Dwight Howard to become the cornerstone of the new era of Lakers hoops.

We expected Mitch Kupchak to surround Kobe Bryant with the weapons necessary to pull even with His Airness in ring count.

We expected Steve Nash to steady the ship with his veteran leadership.

We expected Coach D’Antoni to do something he simply cannot – coach a contender.

Our distorted sense of reality was crushed under the weight of the worst home loss in Lakers history last night.

Our hopes faded long ago but were given a gut punch when Andrew Goudelock and Darius Morris were inserted into the starting lineup. Talk about adding insult to injury? While I’m a fan of the Mini Mamba and enjoy seeing the progression of Morris even I know their numbers last night were fool’s gold.

But we’re the fools for supporting this subpar team all season long. We saw with our eyes what our hearts had overlooked. This team never had a chance to compete. The end can’t come soon enough. The future, however, is now here. What happens next is anyone’s guess. I’m just guessing that next time we won’t be as eager to anoint our Purple and Gold as anything more than lottery contenders.