2017-18 Lakers Season Watch Thread (27-34, 10th Slot on 3/2)

[JBcat]

Things are looking a little more promising lately.  Mavs have won 3 of 4, and almost beat us.  The Kings 2 and 3 the last 5 games and almost won last game.  Both 3 games back in the loss column to the Lakers, and the Lakers schedule is about to get very tough for a while.  The Grizzlies, Clippers, and Suns only a game back, and the Nets 2 games back.  The Clippers should should leapfrog the Lakers at some point, and the Grizzlies and Nets will get Conley JR and Russell back at some point.

In a way it will be good if several teams are bunched up close in wins total for a while.  It would make it that much harder for teams to tank.

[CelticSooner]

Lakers now 8-12. They only get the Warriors next who are coming off a loss to the Kings.

[CelticsElite]

Clips and kings won. Good stuff. Lakers lose.

[CelticsElite]

Lakers now 8-12. They only get the Warriors next who are coming off a loss to the Kings.

warriors are gonna be hungry for that win now

[CelticsElite]

Things are looking a little more promising lately.  Mavs have won 3 of 4, and almost beat us.  The Kings 2 and 3 the last 5 games and almost won last game.  Both 3 games back in the loss column to the Lakers, and the Lakers schedule is about to get very tough for a while.  The Grizzlies, Clippers, and Suns only a game back, and the Nets 2 games back.  The Clippers should should leapfrog the Lakers at some point, and the Grizzlies and Nets will get Conley JR and Russell back at some point.

In a way it will be good if several teams are bunched up close in wins total for a while.  It would make it that much harder for teams to tank.

also don’t forget the jazz with her Gobert back soon to certify they’ll be ahead as well

[SCeltic34]

The Clippers were fortunate to win that game.  Griffin goes down with an injury, but on top of that it was just a bunch of Austin Rivers and Lou Williams iso plays in the 4th.  Just goes to show you how bad the Lakers can be, because there's little reason why the Clippers should have put up that many 4th quarter points.  Iso ball with everyone else standing around seems to be Doc's preferred 4th quarter play.

[celticsclay]

Pretty cool that kings stole that win!

[tazzmaniac]

Pretty cool that kings stole that win!

More of a gift from GSW by sitting KD and Curry.  If I was a Kings fan, I wouldn't be happy about getting the meaningless win. 

[hwangjini_1]

i suspect that kings fans are happy with any sort of win.

[RunningTheFloor]

Good news.  It's going to be a tough month or so for the Lakers. 

From now through the end of December (15 games), their opponent win pct. is .622.  During this span, they play just three games against teams under .500, 11 against teams over .500 and 1 at .500.  They have to play both the Warriors and Rockets 3 times each.

If they get 5 wins over that stretch, I'd be impressed.

For perspective, their opponents win pct. is .476 so far this year.  They played 10 games vs. sub .500 teams, nine vs. above .500 teams, and one vs. a .500 team. 

(In truth, I dove into these numbers because it seemed like they were always playing bad teams, so I was actually disappointed to see a relatively even split; probably means their schedule in January/February should be much easier.)

[celticsclay]

Pretty cool that kings stole that win!

More of a gift from GSW by sitting KD and Curry.  If I was a Kings fan, I wouldn't be happy about getting the meaningless win.

They still had Klay Thompson and Draymond playing and were 13 point underdogs. It was a big win regardless. Especially given the big brother laughingstock brother relationship the two teams have (the stadiums are like 1.5-2hrs apart) this is a pretty weird take to make. Sometimes I feel like you just try to be contrarian without even putting any thought into it.

Edit: I just checked over on sactown royalty and most fans are extremely happy with a few fans vaguely referencing the tank out of hundreds of posts. This may be my favorite post on it
 "I want to kick Warriors fans in their gentrified balls and push their children down into puddles.
Beating them on their home court gives me a fuzzy warm feeling"

I'll add if If you are a team of a fan that beats your neighboring team and defending champ on their homecourt as double digit underdogs because your young prospects play exceptionally well in a game in November and you can't enjoy it because there is a small chance it hurts your tank, it is probably time to not follow the team for a few years. 

[celticsclay]

i suspect that kings fans are happy with any sort of win.

The kings are a complete laughingstock of a franchise and their fans are generally disgusted with many many aspects of their team. It is possible a few of the young players on the team now (Hield, Fox, Mason, Skal perhaps Giles if his knees regrow) could end up being pretty good players. That being said, even in a season of openly rooting for tanking, the majority of fans are going to be very happy beating the gold standard franchise that has a stadium 2 hours away from them on their homecourt. It is certainly less insane winning their without KD and Curry (which would have been biggest upset of season), however, it stills ranks as one of the top 5 upsets of the season even with just the two all-stars. 

[trickybilly]

Pretty cool that kings stole that win!

Cool for us. Much easier to win a chip with homecourt advantage 

[CelticsElite]

Suns won

Will be nice if jazz and kings also win tonight

[CelticsElite]

Jazz won

A lot of action tomorrow regarding the pick. Tomorrow we will need:

Lakers to lose to warriors
Magic to beat OKC (but it’s ok if okc wins too)
Grizz to beat spurs
Suns to beat pistons (suns coming off a win vs Bulls)
Hornets to beat raptors
Nets to beat mavs (ok if mavs win though)