I’m going to keep this short because…well, what is there to really say? The Lakers have lost 9 games in a row, haven’t been playing hard, and really need to get a win. See the progression, there? If they’re to win and end this streak, playing hard is sort of necessary. It does not guarantee anything, but it will help.
Quality of opponent does not matter here. Sunday’s opponent, the Hawks, are also bad! They are, technically, the only team worse than the Lakers. With only 10 wins and 28 losses, the Hawks are last in the East and a full game ahead of the Lakers in the race to the bottom of the standings. They’ve lost the first two games of what is a 5 game road trip out west AND had a day off in Los Angeles — a Saturday night to boot!
In other words, if there was a game with ripe conditions for the Lakers to end their losing ways, this it. Again, though, it does not matter that the Hawks are bad, since, you know, the Lakers are bad too. Bad teams lose to other bad teams and you’d be smart to bet the Hawks look at the Lakers and are thinking “if we can’t beat these guys…”
So, yeah.
Anyways, that’s about all I’ve got for you. No X’s and O’s. No matchups. No talk of who needs to do what, who’s back in the lineup, or how they’ll be deployed. Because none of that stuff actually matters if the Lakers don’t care or don’t play hard. So, you know, have them start with that and we can get into all those other things later. I’m dead serious on that, you guys.
It’s time to turn things around. This game offers as good a chance as they’re going to get for some time.
Where you can watch: 6:30pm start time on Spectrum Sportsnet.