PORTLAND, Ore. — In a series, the theory goes, a team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis will always have a puncher’s chance.
The Lakers’ problem: Will they even be in position to throw a punch?
The audacity of what the Lakers (26-32) are trying to achieve came into clear view on Monday night, as the shaken-up roster was torn asunder by Damian Lillard and his Trail Blazers. As of Tuesday, the Lakers are still in 13th place in the Western Conference – a spot they have been in for a frustrating majority of the season – 4½ games back from the No. 6 seed and 2½ games out of the final play-in spot (seeds 7-10).
The Lakers strongly believe this version of the roster is better than the one they had before the trade deadline, but with LeBron James dealing with a nagging foot injury and six new players to incorporate, making the postseason looms as a massive challenge. Stat site FiveThirtyEight gives the Lakers a 36% chance of making the playoffs; Basketball Reference is more pessimistic, at less than 8%.
At the same time D’Angelo Russell, the Lakers’ new starting point guard, admitted of his familiarity with his new teammates on a scale from 1 to 10, “I’m a 1 right now,” he also acknowledged that there isn’t much time to study up.
“The bad thing about it is we have 20-something games to do it – not a lot of time,” he said. “So, if we’re going to do it, let’s do it. If we’re going to keep making excuses about all the things that we can make excuses about, it just kind of limits our opportunity.”
The Lakers have precisely 24 games left. Tankathon rates their strength of remaining schedule as 22nd in the league: Their opponents left on the schedule have a .487 win percentage. That includes a tough slate in the next eight games alone with two matchups against Memphis, as well as two home games later on in the schedule against the Phoenix Suns and their new star Kevin Durant. But it also includes two games apiece against some of the…
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