Lakers fans will finally get relief after horrible start here soon
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers are off to a laughably bad start this season to the point where the team giving the New Orleans Pelicans a chance at Victor Wembanyama is a real conversation. After the most disappointing season in franchise history, this is not the kind of start that fans were hoping for.
Making matters worse is the fact that Russell Westbrook has been decent for the team this season. He has been far from perfect but this is probably the best version of Westbrook that the Lakers will ever get and they are still losing games fairly easily.
To be fair, Los Angeles has had to play some tough opponents thus far this season. While the team’s strength of schedule is around the middle of the NBA pack, there is no denying that the Lakers have played talented team after talented team. With Utah being much better than anyone expected, the worst team LA has played is the Timberwolves, who are still pretty talented.
The Lakers schedule does ease up in the coming weeks.
Relief may be on the way for Lakers fans as the upcoming schedule for the team gets easier than what it has been thus far this year. This could provide an opportunity for the 2-9 Lakers to actually string together wins and put themselves in a position to at least flirt with the idea of making a Westbrook trade.
Of course, if the team continues to stumble and stacks losses in the easy stretch that is around the corner then it would officially be time to give up on the season. If LA has five or fewer wins a quarter of the way through the year then the team is going absolutely nowhere.
It starts against the Sacramento Kings on Friday night. Los Angeles then gets to host the equally-as-disappointing Brooklyn Nets (likely without Kyrie Irving) before hosting the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs.
Those are four home games that are absolutely winnable for the Lakers and at the very least, Los Angeles needs to go 3-1 in that stretch. As bad as it has been this season, LA should be able to put together a winning record in that span of four home games.
Los Angeles will come back down to earth on the road against the Phoenix Suns but then has back-to-back road games against the Spurs as well as a road game against the Indiana Pacers. Those are two teams that want to have a top pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. Los Angeles should win those games.
The Lakers then play the Blazers, Bucks and Wizards to take us into December. If they start playing well, they absolutely could take the Blazers and Wizards game while losing to the Bucks.
That is a stretch of 11 games where the Lakers have a good chance of winning in nine. Will the team go 9-2 in that stretch to fight back to .500? Probably not. But can they go 7-4 to move to a much more respectable 9-13? Absolutely.