The Los Angeles Lakers are staring at missing the playoffs for the sixth straight season. However, Josh Hart believes the team should be motivated with their backs against the wall.
Coming into the season, there was a lot of hype surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers. They were able to sign their superstar in LeBron James, and many believed that getting James would result in the Lakers making the playoffs.
After a strong start to the season, the Lakers began to get hit hard by the injury bug. James went down on Christmas with a groin injury, and that was too much for the Lakers to overcome. At the time of the injury to James, the Lakers were the fourth seed in the Western Conference, but have since fallen out of the playoff picture.
As of now, the Lakers are 5.5 games behind the San Antonio Spurs for the final spot in the West. While they aren’t mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, there isn’t much a reason to believe that this team will make the playoffs.
Recently, Josh Hart talked about why the Lakers should be motivated with their backs against the wall. Here’s what he had to say via Matthew Moreno of LakersNation.com.
"“You’ve got to be the best you can be. We want to make the playoffs. If that’s the goal, we don’t need motivation. If you’re not motivated with your back against the wall, everyone is counting us out. We’re probably the most-criticized team in the NBA. If that doesn’t motivate you, if that doesn’t get you up in the morning, gets you ready to go out and compete, nothing will.”"
While the Lakers might want to end their playoff drought, it certainly hasn’t looked like it when watching them lose games to some of the worst teams in the league. If the Lakers beat the teams that they were supposed too, they would be in a much better position to make the playoffs.
However, with all of the injuries to the Lakers and the chemistry of the team being questioned, it isn’t surprising to see them losing these games. Four of the Lakers’ next five games will be against potential playoff teams from both the East and the West. If the Lakers truly want to make a run at the postseason, they will have to beat some of these talented teams to make up for some of the awful losses.