Suns officially end the disaster 2021-22 season for the Lakers
By Ronald Agers
The Los Angeles Lakers were unofficially done with the regular season after losing on Sunday against the Denver Nuggets (PFFT! The New Orleans Pelicans on Friday!). It was up to the Phoenix Suns to put this franchise out of its misery and officially turn the lights out on this debacle of a season. The staff of Lake Show Life made vacation plans in January, but now the world has caught up.
The only two things left to watch this season is LeBron James sleepwalking through two more games (Our projections have the OKC and Golden State games so he doesn’t have to deal with physical play!) to qualify for the scoring title and Frank Vogel’s final coaching performance on Sunday.
Something that this website saw last offseason, the Los Angeles Lakers finished off the worst planned coaching firing scheme in NBA history on Tuesday.
This, according to the Bleacher Report:
"Now, as the finish line for this tumultuous 2021-22 campaign mercifully arrives, the Lakers are still expected to part ways with embattled play-caller Frank Vogel, sources told B/R, and the anticipated vacancy on Los Angeles’ bench has produced no shortage of potential candidates linked to fill the position."
To be clear here, the Los Angeles Lakers have not been good for quite some time, a fact that the staff has shown as professionally as we could try on a game-by-game basis. Sometimes we get very frustrated with readers calling us out on our critical analysis. For those people, we would like to show the alternative way of saying that the Lakers lack a certain element to be a playoff contender much less a championship team.
Fellow Winston Salem State University alumnus, Stephen A. Smith…
https://twitter.com/ESPNNBA/status/1511488108507930624
To the ones that thought that this writer is saying “I told you so!”…yep. Saw it the day that Frank Vogel was hired. Enjoy the history lesson folks in the article below written YEARS AGO!
However, the team still has to finish out the season through Sunday riding out a six-game losing streak that extends to 16 out of 20 games. The next opponent for the Lake Show is the Golden State Warriors.
LeBron James sat out the game…again. But he’s done all he can, right?
None of this really mattered because the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Denver Nuggets before halftime 116-97. The play-in possibility was really done before this game even started. Then the Lakers came out in the second half and played like they got the news.
The Lakers are officially out of any postseason talk by getting blown out of the state of Arizona 121-110.
Season finale is on Sunday, maybe LeBron will chase the scoring title.
The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:
The first quarter was exactly what the Lakers fanbase has been waiting for all season.
Based on all of the potential distractions coupled with LeBron James not playing, it could have been easy for the players to phone it in and get ready for the 1-2-3 Cancun chant on Sunday. Not only did they dismiss that option in the first quarter, but they also played one of the most complete opening quarters of the season.
- Dwight Howard pulled out his Orlando Magic bag of production scoring 8 points by getting to the free-throw line and hitting all six of them. His presence at the rim forced Devin Booker to blow an easy layup. His activity really bothered the Suns on both ends.
- Devin Booker got two fouls early.
- The Lakers knocked four 3 pointers to the Suns’ two.
- The Lakers won the rebounding battle thanks to Dwight’s six.
- The Lakers hit more free throws buoyed by Dwight Howard.
When was the last time the Los Angeles Lakers played a better first quarter than the Suns leading 31-28.
Then the second quarter started and Monty Williams did something that is foreign to Frank Vogel. He made defensive adjustments and the Suns took off.
Russell Westbrook.
The man continues to show character in a franchise full of chaos. While Anthony Davis and LeBron James showed their respective versions of the “Street Clothes” line off and on throughout the season, this guy shows up every night and tries. This game was no different. He continued to play hard even though Phoenix smoked the Lakers like a pack of Kools in the second half.
He finished with 28 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.
Hopefully, this will be Anthony Davis’ season finale!
This dude has been picked on a lot. He’s tired of it too as the Los Angeles Times can attest.
"“This is what I’ve learned about injuries: Last year when I wasn’t playing, people were saying ‘AD’s giving up on his team. It’s the playoffs. AD has to play. He’s got to play.’ And when I went out there to play, got hurt again, they said, ‘Who was his trainer? Who let him play?’ “So, what the [expletive] do you want me to do? When I play, it’s a problem. It’s a problem when I don’t play. At the end of the day, I’ve got to do what’s best for me and how my body feels. And we go from there. I’m not worried about who’s saying what or who thinks this about me because none of them have stepped on the floor and played. And the ones that did play, they should understand. “These aren’t little ticky-tack injuries.”"
No, they are not and he needs to shut it down. There’s no reason for this guy to play again this season. Sure the “Street Clothes” moniker will float around because the joke is funny, but he can easily stop all of this with an 82-game season next year.
He finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds on a very bad foot. The fact that he was out there shows more about the Lakers at this point than AD trying.