“LeBron James and the Lakers have the hardest remaining schedule in the NBA”: Is a total LA collapse imminent and will the NBA’s newest Big 3 miss the playoffs?

LeBron James and the new look Lakers have stumbled coming out of the gates, and the schedule isn’t going to be doing them any favors the rest of the way.

This offseason, the Lakers went all in on getting a third star, and in the end, they traded for Russell Westbrook in hopes of forming the NBA’s newest big-three. However, the experiment hasn’t worked exactly as planned so far.

The Lakers are currently 17-19 sitting at 7th place in the West, and they haven’t looked at all like a finals contender or even a serious playoff contender for that matter.

The Westbrook hype has largely died down, and there are already talks of trading him not even midway through the year. Something really does need to change in LA, and it needs to change fast.

LeBron James over the last 6 games:

31 PTS, 14 REB, 6 AST, 52% FG
34 PTS, 7 REB, 2 AST, 68% FG
36 PTS, 9 REB, 6 AST, 57% FG
39 PTS, 9 REB, 7 AST, 56% FG
32 PTS, 11 REB, 11 AST, 58% FG
37 PTS, 13 REB, 7 AST, 52% FG

Lakers are 1-5. pic.twitter.com/RzMbXxkoJJ

— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) December 30, 2021

Also Read: “Immanuel Quickley really had to play with a typo on his back”: NBA Twitter reacts as the Knicks misspell their guard’s name as “Qucikley” on his jersey vs the Pistons

LeBron James and the Lakers have toughest remaining schedule in the NBA

One thing that might be worrying for LA fans is that the Lakers haven’t had to face a very difficult slate of opponents so far. They’ve played teams like the Houston Rockets thrice, the Thunder thrice, and the Timberwolves twice while they still have three games remaining against the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns (the #1 and #2 seeds in the West right now) and two games remaining against the Utah Jazz (the #3 seed right now). They also have games against the Nets and Bucks left too.

Is it possible that a tough stretch against these teams knock the Lakers out of playoff contention altogether? It’s definitely possible, but that might be underestimating LeBron a little too much.

The Lakers (.472 winning percentage) are just above the Dallas Mavericks and  Minnesota Timberwolves (both at .471) at the moment who hold the 8th and 9th seed. Below them are the San Antonio Spurs at .424. These four teams make up the play-in tournament right now.

For the Lakers to drop out of the playoffs entirely they’d have to somehow fall behind all those teams and below the current 11th seed, the Sacramento Kings (.417). While it’s definitely possible, that would take an all-time collapse from a LeBron James led team, and with the firepower this team possesses that seems hard to fathom.

It’s also important to note that Anthony Davis has been injured for the Lakers terrible run right now, and his return will definitely bolster the middling team right now. LeBron is having to burden the load of the offense all on his own right now, and while he’s been incredible, he definitely needs more support.

Also Read: “Sh*t when I looked up, I was like ‘god damn’”: Marcus Morris was in disbelief Jaylen Brown and co. shot 4 of 42 from 3

About the author

Ashish Priyadarshi

Ashish Priyadarshi is The SportsRush's content manager and editor. Ashish freelanced for 1 year in the NFL division before taking on an editorial role in the company. He then tacked on managing content while adding on a writing role in the NBA division. Ashish has been closely following the NFL and NBA since the 2012 season when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl and Derrick Rose was at the height of his powers. Since then, Ashish has focused on honing his knowledge for both leagues in, even writing crossover pieces. In his free time, Ashish is an avid basketball player, he loves to watch movies and TV shows, immersing himself in the cinematic world. Ashish studies computer science and data science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and would love to mesh his love for sports with his technical skills.

Read More