The Lakers suffered a devastating loss to the Spurs in the last game at Staples Center.
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Lebron James is infamous for handpicking his teammates and creating superteams. The 2021-22 Lakers roster is a championship-worthy team on paper. However, 33 games into the season, the Lakers have a dubious record of 16 wins and 17 losses.
On 23rd December, the Lakers suited up against the San Antonio Spurs. The Lakers faced a 28-point defeat to the 10th-seeded Spurs team. Despite missing a few key players, the loss was devastating, to say the least.
Lebron James and Russell Westbrook had great games statistically scoring 36 and 30 points respectively. However, the Spurs bench outscored the Lakers bench 69-20. Spurs-forward Kieta Bates-Diop (a player averaging less than 5 points) dropped a career-high 30 points on 11-11 shooting. This is 10 more than the Lakers bench put together.
The loss was iconic as this was the last game in the Staples Center. The building is changing its name to Crypto.com Arena on Christmas under what’s believed to be the richest naming rights agreement in sports history. The cryptocurrency platform is paying more than $700 million over 20 years to put its name on the arena.
Does Lebron James need more help?
With this recent loss, social media is flooded with Lakers fans saying – ‘Lebron needs more help’. Lebron had 36 points while shooting 58% from the field. Even though Russ added an efficient 30 points, the rest of the 10 players who suited up were a no-show.
LeBron over the last 12 games:
28.8 PTS | 7.7 REB | 6.8 AST
this man deserves better.. @Lakers pic.twitter.com/07lKJdvdIB
— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) December 22, 2021
LeBron is too old for a team this talented to be relying on him this much night to night. Russell needs to look where he’s passing, and when he’s shooting layups, THT needs to make baskets more consistently. I know “LeBron needs help” is a tired trope at this point, but he does
— J.C. De Leon (@jcdeleon1) December 22, 2021
Lakers have recently lost AD to a knee injury. In addition, the Lakers have had several players in and out of the Covid health and safety protocols in the past few days. It is difficult to judge a short-handed Lakers team, yet the question arises – Are the Lakers good enough to win a championship?
A healthy Lakers team has a former MVP in Russ, a 3x DPOY in Dwight, a top 10 scorer in Melo to name a few. While some of these players are in the rear end of their career, Lebron James had high hopes this season. Fans took it to social media making fun of the roster to which Lebron had a somewhat cocky response.
Despite the popular opinion, the Lakers squad when healthy looks like a championship squad. However, there are issues they need to address.
Improvement in their on-court synergy could work wonders in comparison to signing or trading for more talented players. The question still remains – Does Lebron James need more help?
