The Los Angeles Lakers of LeBron James, beaten in Phoenix (121-110), were eliminated from the play-off race on Tuesday in the NBA. The end of a catastrophic season for the 2020 champions.
The ordeal finally stops. While they were aiming to regain the title after an “XXL” recruitment with the arrivals of Russell Westbrook, to form a “Big 3” with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but also players rather at the end of their careers (Carmelo Anthony, Trevor Ariza, DeAndre Jordan, Rajon Rondo – who left almost immediately – and Dwight Howard), it was ultimately only a difficult season for the Angelitos.
Already, last season, Los Angeles had experienced a very complicated Championship, with elimination in the first round of the NBA play-offs.
Back to the wall against the Suns, LA only deceived in the first period, despite the efforts of Davis (21 pts, 13 rbds) and Westbrook (28 pts), after which the championship leader accelerated in the wake of Devin Booker (32 pts) and DeAndre Ayton (22 pts, 13 rebounds), with a 63rd victory this season, a new franchise record.
This year, we’ve had more starting fives than wins.Anthony Davis
Absent because injured, LeBron James could not help his family. This season was also that of the “LeBron-addiction”. At 37, the “King” was exceptional (30.3 pts on average) but without making the others play better, as evidenced by his 6.2 average passes, far from 10.2 for the 2019-2020 financial year.
And if many have pointed to Russell Westbrook, paid 40.6 million euros and who would have been taken “by default” in place of DeMar DeRozan, who left San Antonio for Chicago, where he is having the best season of his career, the numerous injuries from other players did not help. “It’s simple, this year, we have had more than five starting victories (39 different starting fives against only 31 victories).”, confided Anthony Davis.
“Our goal was to win a title. I think we had the right elements for it, but injuries took us out of our way, explained the defender. That’s what made the difference this season. Afterwards, we also lost games when Russ, Bron and I were on the field at the same time, but we would have found solutions if we had had more minutes together. We didn’t have that opportunity and living with the fact that the top three players could only play together a little bit made it difficult for us when you want to compete for the title.
Unfortunately, the April 1st joke of LeBron James, who had indicated that he was ending his season, finally only had four days in advance to become reality. He is not in the play-offs for the 4th time in his career in 19 seasons, punctuated by 10 finals and four coronations.
It remains to be seen what the Lakers will do to prepare for next season. Will Westbrook be sold? Will Frank Vogel be replaced? Will there be a complete roster reshuffle?