The LA Lakers are not yet officially eliminated from the playoffs but it is only a matter of time before it becomes official and the greatest (current) player in the NBA misses the playoffs for the first time in 14 years.
The Lakers were very keen on getting LeBron James from the Cleveland Cavaliers last season and they succeeded.
The management and Lakers fans were positive that the addition of King James would turn around the fortunes of the struggling LA Lakers franchise.
Sadly things did not go that way and the Lakers now sit in 11th place on the Western Conference points table with an unenviable record of winning 31 games and losing 36 games. They recently lost a string of 5 consecutive games which basically sealed their fate from making the playoffs this season.
ESPN
The string of losses was broken on Tuesday night when the Lakers managed to beat the Chicago Bulls 123-107 thanks to a dominant display by LeBron James who finished with 36 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists.
James carried his former franchise the Cleveland Cavaliers to consecutive NBA playoffs but for some reason the load was too heavy with the Lakers. He also suffered a significant injury that caused him to miss a number of games this season and that also impacted the Lakers performance.
While the Lakers have missed the playoffs for a number of years, LeBron James is not used to having off-time during the playoffs. It looks like the experiment with James has failed this season as the Lakers have not only failed to make the playoffs but they look a demoralized group.
LeBron James was very keen to get Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans traded to the Lakers as he believed that together they could change the fortunes of the Lakers. The Lakers management went after Davis and were willing to trade just about the entire Lakers roster to get Davis.
When news of this broke in Feb, many players from the Lakers were deflated and it made it hard for them to gel as a team and give their all.
Lakers management brushed this aside saying it was all part of professional sport but it created an environment that wasn’t conducive to winning as distrust and commitment issues surfaced. All this hasn’t helped the Lakers move forward and will result in LeBron James missing the playoffs in 2019!
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