Los Angeles Lakers: 5 Takeaways from loss to Memphis Grizzlies
By Ronald Agers
The Lakers are showing desperation in back-to-back losses
The Los Angeles Lakers will forever be a cautionary tale when it comes to making future trade moves now and forever. If the Lakers miss the playoffs, fans can look no further than the Anthony Davis trade attempt that had every player on the roster not named LeBron James on the block. Then Magic Johnson’s tough love meeting that sent the message of “So…get over it and grow up.”
This was supposed to inspire the team. Instead, the team has gone into survival mode.
Not for the playoffs, for themselves.
The Lakers are running out of time in this season, losing on the road to the Memphis Grizzlies, 110-105. With the Clippers winning 121-112 to the Dallas Mavericks, they advanced the 7th spot in front of the San Antonio Spurs, who lost to the Brooklyn Nets. Now before anyone get any ideas of catching the Spurs, it’s a good time to be reminded that the Spurs have the tie-breaker thanks to their season series win over the Lakers.
Meaning they are technically three games out of the playoff hunt.
Really at this point, it really doesn’t matter because the Lakers do not play hard and the defense they play is so horrid that players that have no business dominating end up doing just that against a Lakers team that just does not trust each other.
Against the Pelicans, it was Cheick Diallo scoring 18 points on zero misses the whole night.
Against Memphis, it was…wait for it…Joakim Noah. Yeah, the dude with the contract that the New York Knicks wanted out of just as bad as the Lakers did Luol Deng.
Joakim Noah came back from the dead to gash the Lakers big men for 14 points and 12 rebounds (3 offensive). He added 4 assists and was on the floor late to draw a charge from LeBron James.
Well it was his birthday…the Lakers let him relive his glory days against his most hated rival LeBron James as a present.
The Lakers may slide by the New Orleans Pelicans at home on Wednesday, but on Friday the Milwaukee Bucks come to town. The honeymoon period is close to being over. The contenders start rolling in next week.
For now, the Lakers got swept on the short road trip and have lost four of their last five games.