2-10 start doomed this team

[socalsp3]

I think Nick Wright made a great point that this team ran out of gas having to be in playoff mode a month earlier trying to get in the play in and survive. I wouldn't mind running it back with this team with some tweaks. Will it be enough to beat Denver? Maybe not but crazy things can happen injuries etc. Giving yourself a chance and be in contention is all you can ask sometimes like GSW did winning it last year. Trying to hit a home run like with Westbrook again with Kyrie is not going to work.

[drae]

[DD20045]

We literally had chances to tie the game in the final minute in almost every game. We just missed the shots. Dont be playing playoff basketball since February and you dont tire out Mid May. The fact they made the WCF shows the floor of the current team. Run it back, win a bunch of regular season games and rest into the playoffs.
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Naz Reid or Brooks Lopez are a must in the 2023 offseason!

[LuciusAllen]

"Doomed"

We made it to the final 4 with a team that didn't have a chance to train together. That's pretty good.

Keeping the core roster intact for once would be great.

[hydrohead]

The 2-10 start also help cast a sense of urgency to support a Russ trade . So it may have saved the season.
Even with a healthy LeBron, Denver probably beats us with home court.
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Darvin

[SGSD32]

2-10 hurt because of the intensity they had to play with down the stretch..

but.. if they didn't have to play with that intensity down the stretch.. would they have grown enough to make a decent playoff run?

[yinoma2001]

2-10 start meant that come February, the team had to hit the turbo button (including the playoffs) for basically 3 months straight. They ran out of gas.
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From 2-10 to the Western Conference Finals

[wolfpaclaker]

Not playing any Center who can develop some chemistry with AD is what doomed the team in the end.

We got 28 ppg from Bron, 27 ppg from AD and 21 ppg from Reaves in the 4-0 sweep. But we couldn't get critical stops and the bleeding was worst at crunch time because we had no answer for their match ups because we played small all year and came in with a small ball approach. The playbook on Joker was to send multiple different big bodies and looks at him, and to have defensive perimeter players that can stay with their role players. In 2020 we used Dwight, AD, McGee, Bron, and even Kieff I think on him. Mainly it was Dwight/AD taking turns, but the main thing there is that we had enough quality big bodies to give Joker different players he had to go through. Our traps and ball denials were also much better in 19-20.

The 2-10 start, we should actually give the team and coaching staff a lot of credit for staying the course and staying focused, but Pelinka's trade of WB was the key thing there for that ending. This team always played with a sense of little expecation on their head, and they got that underdog mindset. However, now it's gets interesting because everyone expects them to be very good next season. Totally different pressure.

[activeverb]

[Halflife]

or as some others have said, maybe we overachieved.
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Kobe.
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[Treble Clef]

[yinoma2001]

[Halflife]

[dont_be_a_wuss]

I think we had the same problem against Denver that caused us to go 2-10. We just don’t have a reliable offense in the closing minutes of the game. We don’t run plays, we don’t have a system. LeBron dribbles the shot clock down to 8 seconds and then jacks a 3 or dumps the ball off to somebody with 3 seconds left on the shot clock who is forced to shoot whatever look they have. Instead of having 16-20 seconds to work for a good shot, we have 3-6 seconds to find a bad shot. And every defense knows this is exactly what is coming. Is fixing that something that is even achievable on a LeBron led team?

[yinoma2001]

[vasashi17+]

What has, is and will continue to doom us is our bball ops aka our bball opps.
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[loseyourname]

I don't see a ton of issue with (mostly) running it back. The biggest concern is if LeBron is going to fall off a cliff at some point. We need a person other than AD who can credibly play center, but other than that, the pieces are good and most of the guys at least have some potential to improve. The Nuggets, Heat, and Celtics all have essentially the same roster as they had last year, yet here they are in spite of not winning a title last year. There's always something to be said for continuity. Teams are better when they've played together a lot. KCP and Kevin Love are the only new starters for all three teams. That level of move is within our reach. Small tweaks. Don't need to blow it up. Unless and until Wemby actually becomes God, the NBA is not full of worldbeater teams. The Nuggets were better, but not by a ton, and are clearly beatable.

[giordan0]

We were "doomed" if Westbrick didn't get traded.

Although Rob put us in the hole in the first place, he has made some amends.

Finishing in the final four is a successful salvage of the season despite the sweep.

[danzag]

Westbrick wasted 1.5 years of Lakers basketball. And possibly 10 years of my life

[Hanging from Rafters]

I think the 2-10 start is a symptom of a much bigger problem which revealed another symptom of the same problem…that being an inability to close games as the other symptom.

Those symptoms are imo a result of continual trade rumors for lack of team stability and continuity which limited team chemistry eroding morale.

The players knew their teammates weren’t going to be their teammates for the entire season and were waiting as a result to see what was going to happen with trades before fully buying in with commitment. It’s hard, even as a professional, to commit to something that isn’t committed to you. Eventually, professional pride overcame that complacency when they realized they would have to ignore the realities that they were not going to be around the players they would be around at the end of the season and sucked it up and played. They started to win some games but wasn’t able to consistently stay out of the 13th spot until after the trade deadline.

The final contributors in game 4 of the WCF were the same guys that had been on the team all year with only Rui getting meaningful minutes other than the core that has been with the team all year. That indicates that the potential had been there all year, just the results were different. 5 of the 8 players that got minutes were players that had been on the team since the start…Schro/AR/LW4/LBJ/AD. Rui was the only other contributor as Dlo and TT combined played sparingly with less than 10 pts total.

I hope what ever changes are made are made before training camp and a team that is put together is committed to by the FO so the players can commit to the team from the beginning.
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“When it looks as if it is a realistic possibility, I want to focus on winning a ship like it’s a goal that can’t be denied. I didn’t see that this off season.”

[DrWolf]

Well, I agree with the OP first and foremost.

2-10 did put a team in the mentality of "We need to win and we need to NOW" Unfortunately for us, this caused Lebron and AD to amp up their playing minutes (causing their respective injuries) and style. We did go 41-29 after we hit that mark which is a plus. However, the 41 wins we had drained the team and just ran to the letter E. I personally wish Pelinka saw the reality of something like this happening last off-season, but I'll leave my thoughts of Pelinka for another time.
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KOBE BRYANT
1978-2020
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2020 WORLD CHAMPION LAKERS!
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[WorthyNum1]

Instead of blaming the 2-10 start, I would place the blame on 5 clutch situations that cost the Lakers 5 games.

11/29/2022 vs Indiana: led by 2, lost to a Andrew Nembhard 3-point buzzer beater.

12/10/2022 at Philadelphia: the Lakers came back from 9-point down in the last 34 seconds. They actually had a chance to win it but AD missed the 2nd FT with 3 seconds left. Lost in OT

12/14/2022 vs Boston: Led by 13 with 4:25 left. AD had the chance to ice the game with 28 seconds left, but missed both FTs. Tatum tied the game with a short jumper and the Lakers lost in OT.

1/29/2023 at Boston: led by 3 with 4 seconds left. Somehow braindead Beverly fouled Jaylen Brown on his last FG to make it an and-1. Then we came to the last play that the NBA admitted that Tatum indeed fouled Lebron but no call. Again, the Lakers lost in OT.

3/18/2023 vs Dallas: Max Kleber hit a 3-point buzzer-beater to win by 1.

These 5 games are really depressing for us Lakers fans. They doomed the Lakers to the play-in. Had they been more clutch on FTs or defensively, the Lakers could have finished 48-34 and as the 4th seed.

Granted, playing the would-be 5th seed vs the Suns would not be a day on the beach. Even if they managed to get past the Suns, in a potential 2nd round match-up vs the Nuggets, they might not have made it to the WCF.

So the Lakers ended up in the 2-3-6-7 bracket may not be too bad.

[nevitt_smrek]

[venturalakersfan]

The team struggled against an early tough schedule, suffered some injuries and then did well against a relatively easy schedule. They drew favorable matchups in the playoffs with an injured Griz team and the Warriors who can’t match up to them. If they drew the Nuggets in the first round they would have been one and done. Overall I think that they had a pretty good season.
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RIP mom. 11-21-1933 to 6-14-2023.

[LakerSD]