Hysteria pushes the Lakers

The Lakers have definitely fallen into hysteria, into a spiral of madness that, of course, makes their games anything but bored. Frustrating, maddening, exciting, strange, difficult to explain? Undoubtedly. Bad, regular and even good, some nights. whatboring? Lately, none. Even if it is not for the reasons that its fans would like and even if they have gotten used to ending up with a bitter taste on the palate. But yes, after a heart attack and no time to catch a snooze. The Lakers are not a team with true shank but you have to admit that compete. They try, they fight. They have LeBron James but they don’t have Anthony Davis. They have Russell Westbrook, with all that that implies on both sides of the scale. They have shooters who miss a lot but hit, at least sometimes. They have crucial casualties beyond that of Davis (Walker, Reaves…) and they have offices in which their leaders seem determined to spend the season without betting on solutions, without looking for answers. Without trying. They have distractions, problems, messes. But when they go out to play, they they try.

of all that noisemaker of emotions, Incredible things come out like the last game, 122-121 against the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that had eleven victories in a row and had his twelfth, and franchise record, unabashedly in hand. But there are things that simply pass. Perhaps due to statistics, because those from Tennessee already had to lose after so many victories, each game of 2022 until this one in their bag. Or because it was the turn of the Lakers that a coin tossed came up heads, even if it was only by insistence: Seven of their last nine games have come down to decisive possessions inside the last minute. Maximum pressure and many painful, avoidable and consecutive defeats against Mavericks, Sixers, Kings… Their own ills (poor management in those endgames, in essence), failures by the referees, touches of bad luck. Maybe it’s just that: touched. Because, watching the game, it is difficult to find explanations beyond that touched and that the Lakers, with all their miseries on their backs, they try until the end.

The Grizzlies helped, entangled at the end in a carousel of faults, bad decisions (overconfidence?), serious mistakes. After a weak start by both teams and a first half of scoring (49-53), it seemed for almost the entire second half that the best team would impose logic, even with some adequacy. It went 72-83 in a very clear third quarter for the Grizzlieswho led the Lakers in the last quarter with the hook, always with advantages that were around ten. But they did not sentence They did not finish off a desperate rival and who had to make the coin fall on his side. With three minutes to go it was 104-112. With 90 seconds to go, a 110-116. LeBron rebounded a miss from Westbrook in attack and scored (115-118). Westbrook was hit by an attack rebound dirty, very fought, and scored (117-118, 23 seconds to go). Tyus Jones was making free throws but the Grizzlies constantly left an open door. And Dennis Schröder, a cyclothymic player on a cyclothymic team, slipped through it.

The German scored five points in the final seconds. First two free throws (119-120) and then, on the play of the year for now for the Lakers (not much to choose from), he stole the ball with a slap from behind a Desmond Bane who, with only 13 seconds to play, it was enough to ensure possession until they were needed. Schröder crossed the court and completed a heroic 2+1 (122-120) with the lack of an already messy Bane. There were seven seconds left and, in case anyone was wondering, much more drama: Ja Morant missed, Gabriel pushed Clarke in the fight for the rebound and the Grizzlies center scored the first free throw (122-121) but missed the second. Bane, almost on the buzzer, nearly sliced ​​the ball for a last desperate shot but he stepped over the sideline. And the Lakers, after exhausting four eternal tenths, won. In such an incredible way as they had lost other days. whatone by another? Something like that.

The point is that it is a 7-4 in the last 11 games counting those losses that could have been victories against teams from the playoff zone. And it’s 9-9, so far, in the almost five weeks without Anthony Davis who, to top off a blissful night in LA (rare right now, really), could be back next week. The Lakers are getting, with their tongues hanging out and suffering as much as possible and a little more, endure badly injured but alive in the hope that the center returns to the excellent level he was before his fatal foot injury. It is a 21-25 (the season started 2-10…) which means being one game away from play in but, in a West in which everything is to be decided from third place downwards, also with the same losses as the eighth and only one more than the sixth. Will it be rowing and rowing to die on the shore or will it be a survival exercise with the ultimate prize. It will be whatever, but is being. And it is not little, as things are.

LeBron James finished with 23 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists. Westbrook, who never gave up in the last quarter, at 29+5+6. Schröder in 19+8+8. And then Brown, Gabriel, the certain recovery of Beverley and Nunn… with Walker and (above all) Davis about to return, and Reaves in the final stretch also of recovery, better times may come (somewhat) but until then there are that survive. So each game is a drama and each victory, a booty to celebrate. The Grizzlies (31-14) are a game and a half behind the Nuggets after losing a golden opportunity due to this series of errors (9-14 in losses, 9/29 in triples, 26/40 in free throws…) and that last-minute disaster that ended up condemning them. He is in a privileged situation, and in battles that are very different (and higher) than those of the Lakers, but nobody likes to lose So, Clear. Ja Morant scored 22 points but shot 29 times (9/29) and saw how his father, by the way, got into a fight with Shannon Sharpe (personality of Fox Sports and former NFL player) at halftime. The thing, at least, ended up being hugged a good while later.

Bane had 16 points but messed it up at the end, Adams finished with 16 points and 17 rebounds, Brooks had one of those nights so common in him (4/17 in shots) and Santi Aldama played more than 15 minutes and contributed 4 points and 5 rebounds. The next time the Grizzlies play in LA against the Lakers will be on March 7 and it will be, of course, the night of the retirement of Pau Gasol’s number 16. History of Spanish basketball.