LeBron James and co. had yet another disappointing outing, this time against a short-handed Portland Trail Blazers squad, losing the bout by 2 points.
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Let’s be honest here. The Los Angeles Lakers are nowhere close to being the deadly team they were projected to be in the offseason. This past summer, the Lakers front office managed to surround LeBron James and Anthony Davis with more than capable players like Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony, Deandre Jordan, Dwight Howard, Kent Bazemore, Trevor Ariza, among several others.
With this team fully stacked with several future HOFers, All-Stars, experienced veterans, and some capable role players, several analysts had picked the Lakers to be strong title contenders to finish as a top-seeded Western Conference team. There were also a few analysts like Kendrick Perkins who made some huge claims that LAL had all the firepower to be a 70-win squad.
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Much to everyone’s surprise, LBJ and co. are a subpar team, to say the least. Anthony Davis missed several games due to injuries, Westbrook is far from playing like his regular self, and despite Bron putting some unreal stats at age 37, the Lakers have not been successful in grabbing wins.
“No words can describe how I’m feeling”: Magic Johnson on LeBron James and co.’s loss to Portland
After grabbing a loss against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night, everyone expected LAL to bounce back with a win in Portland against the short-handed Blazers. After having already defeated them a few games back, with CJ McCollum on the squad, it was the Lakers’ game to lose.
Incredibly, behind Anfernee Simons’ 29-point night, the Blazers managed to upset the Westbrook-less LAL 109-107. Like every other game, King James spoke about the team’s struggles and tried to be positive.
“We’re all in the foxhole together,” James said. “There is not one guy who is doing it by (himself). There’s not one guy you can blame over another guy. There’s not one guy who gets the praise over another guy. When we lose, we all lose. When we win, we all win. It’s really that simple.”
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Like every other Laker fan, Magic Johnson too was disappointed in the team’s poor performance. Taking it to his Twitter, the Hall-Of-Famer wrote:
After the @Lakers loss to Portland tonight, I’m speechless. No words can describe how I’m feeling.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) February 10, 2022
The Lakers have now fallen to the 9th seed in the West with a <.500 26-30 record. Playing the Warriors and the Jazz as their two matchups before the All-Star break, Frank Vogel’s boys are definitely going to be having a tough time in battling these in-form squads.