The Only Thing That Can Save My Team is an Exorcism
Fans turn away in horror when the Lakers have a fourth-quarter lead
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I don’t expect any sympathy from all you haters out there, but I guarantee you know exactly what I am feeling right now.
Last Friday night, we saw another fourth-quarter collapse in a long string of blown games this season. It happens to bad teams all the time and the Lakers have been a bad team since July 29, 2021.
It seemed like the Lakers finally got a break, as Dallas had to play without Luka Doncic. At the same time, Golden State, Minnesota, New Orleans and Portland all lost.
Somehow, the Los Angeles Lakers managed to blow a 4-point lead where they had the ball in the last 17 seconds.
What made this game so unbearable was a win would have put them in a tie with Golden State for the #6 seed in the West.
For the past two seasons, I accepted the Lakers’ incompetence as the Russell Westbrook tax.
The front office destroyed a championship roster. The team was still rated the #1 defense in 2020–2021, despite LeBron and AD missing almost half the season.
They brought in a guy who can’t shoot, refuses to defend or set screens, and lacks the decision-making to play winning basketball in crunch time.
They brought in a guy who was so clueless that he blamed everyone else for his failures in his exit interview.
Worst of all, they brought in a guy who fought the coach’s system on the first day of training camp. Westbrook undermined the coach and created a locker room vibe that destroyed the team from within.
It would be too simple to blame the basketball gods for all the last-minute losses.
This is a team that doesn’t just snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, it performs root canals without anesthesia on us fans.
