Posts

Mediocre, Average, Underwhelming. And it perfectly describes this team and frankly this entire organization right now. Besides Luka’s individual stats, there is no meaningful area where we are truly “elite”. And being in the middle is the absolute worst place to be in the NBA.

But we might see a 5 game win-streak on the immediate horizon while we’re playing a bunch of mid & sub-mid teams and folks will be claiming that the Lakers have turned the corner heading into the end of the season. Then reality will set in when we start playing actual contenders again.

Lakers net ratings with different lineup combinations:Luka/Lebron/Reaves on (-9.7)Luka/Reaves on, Lebron off (+19.3)Luka/Lebron on, Reaves off (-3.9)Reaves/Lebron on, Luka off (-4.2)Lebron off, Luka/Reaves off (+8.8)Luka on, Lebron/Reaves off (+4.9)Both Luka and…— JSM (@JSMonYT) February 24, 2026

A Radical NBA Draft Proposal That Could End Tanking for Good https://t.co/Z2ECdNHKQl— LakerTom (@LakerTom) February 24, 2026

Lakers' JJ Redick reveals what is preventing LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Luka Doncic from winning https://t.co/hBzAEOeYb9— LakerTom (@LakerTom) February 24, 2026

I can think of several words to describe last nights woeful outing against the under-manned Celtics but I’ll settle on one: pathetic. Not worth the watching but I did anyway. Only thing to take away from this loss: we aren’t a contender.

1) Too much whining. Sure, the Celtics got away with 2 obvious goaltends and 2 obvious offensive fouls. Evidently that was enough to take the team and coaching staff out of the game. Luka is going to complain, LeBron has earned the right to complain. Marcus Smart flapping his yap for 3 minutes just to get a tech doesn’t need to stay in the game plan. Any player who just lays on the floor and whines should be benched next time…except our coach whines as much as the players do. Weak.

2) Speaking of Marcus Smart, fine time for a donut against the team that once called him
it’s heart and soul right before shipping him out and winning a title. So much for getting revenge or playing for pride… At this point I hope he opts out, the negatives aren’t outweighed by the positives, IMO. He’s clearly a step slow on D, takes it out on the officials, and shoots far too often based on his ability to actually make shots. Play Kennard more if you need buckets or Vando if you need stops. Have him slide into a mentor role or whatever.

3) Same goes for Ayton. Please, please opt out. We don’t need your skillset on this team and we need someone whose head is in the game for more than 7 minutes. It’s a 48 minute game, dude, show up for more of them or just go away.

4) Reddick got vastly out-coached. The Celtics pressured us full court all game long and we let them, they outhustled us and we stuck with our slowest, most myopic players in the 2nd half. Pat Riley could have done a better job coaching these guys, not 80’s Pat Riley, the near fossilized one that showed more pep than our entire team last night during his speech.

5) Reaves checked out early. Evidently he just can’t keep up with Payton Pritchard. Dude got outplayed by Payton for the full 48 and whined a lot while it happened. Reaves might get paid a lot of money this coming summer but games like this make me wonder if it should be us…

Games like this make me wish our record reflected the effort this team puts forth. Honestly, this is a playin team riding on the coattails of early season success and injuries to key players on other teams. It’s sad that this is how LeBron will go out as a Laker because I’m not seeing a lot of reasons for him to put himself through this ever again. I fucking hate losing to the Celtics but I really hate the way we no-showed a big game last night. Just proves what a lot of us have seen in this team since last summer. Which is to say not much. I suppose there’s time to turn it around but this feels like what the team it is now. Weak, slow, and no heart.