Yesterday proved to be yet another disappointment for the flailing Lakers, whose seeming penchant for snatching defeat from the throes of victory had them absorbing their third straight setback and seventh in their last nine outings. For all the credit they deserved for getting out of the gates with purpose following the absence of any roster movement at the trade deadline, the outcome remained the same: long faces at the final buzzer, in acknowledgment of both the immediate past development and the foreseeable future. They have been reduced to misery, scrambling for a play-in spot instead of rubbing elbows at the top of the standings.
The Lakers have, of course, no one to blame but themselves. In the off-season, they dared to roll the dice on the mother of all risks: rolling the red carpet for Russell Westbrook, the National Basketball Association’s most polarizing presence, at the expense of depth. That they gave up a lot for the former Most Valuable Player awardee was apparent then. That they gave up too much is clear now. In between, they weren’t helped by frequent lineup changes due to a cacophony of injuries to vital cogs, leading to an evident failure to establish any identity, consistency, and clarity of pecking order.
So desperate did the Lakers become that they were hoping for a change — any change — to their supposedly powerhouse cast at the trade deadline. The best that they could get was a Westbrook-for-John-Wall offer from the Rockets that made absolutely no sense. A swap of damaged goods benefited no one save for the proponents, who figured to get a first-round pick out of the deal. And if the grapevine is to be believed, they even had the audacity to target Buddy Hield vice their erstwhile prized catch. Given that they left the Kings at the altar nearly seven months ago, it was, if nothing else, proof that irony is lost on them.
All things considered, the manner in which the Lakers lost to the Draymond Green-less Warriors yesterday provides a microcosm of their plight. Top dog LeBron James found himself reaching yet another personal milestone, but fell short of delivering for the collective in the end. He extended his streak of scoring at least 25 markers to 22 matches and moved past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the top of the career points list — meaningless in the face of his nine-of-27 showing and inability to can free throws that would have sent the contest to overtime. Too bad, really, because he’s 37, and time is running out on him, however slowly, just as time has run out on the purple and gold.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
